A love of history has turned into a trip back in time for a Vanderhoof school.
Mrs. Lauze's Grade 8 class at Northside Christian School in Vanderhoof will be sent all the way back to the 19th century after winning one of the top national prizes in a federal government competition.
Parks Canada held the Coolest School Trip video initiative. Grade 8 classes all over the nation (38 schools altogether) entered their vignettes, and online voting determined the winners. The grand prize was earned by cole Antoine-Roy in Rivire-au-Renard, Quebec. That class did a music video (students did the singing) for an original song about their area's human and natural history. For their efforts they get a trip to the B.C. coast where they will be toured for days through some of the most splendid cultural and environmental features of the Canadian Pacific.
Three runners-up, including Northside, were also selected by the voting, each of them winning an enhanced Parks Canada experience at a National Historic Site near them.
"The students [at Northside] felt a surge of excitement and pride," said Kim Weir, spokesperson for the Parks Canada field unit covering Jasper and Fort St. James. "[They get] the unique experience of having a whole national historic site to themselves for a night. They will spend the night in 1896 in the most luxurious accommodation New Caledonia had to offer...the sprawling Murray house, home of Fort St. James National Historic Site's bed and breakfast."
The students will enjoy special period activities designed just for them, followed by dinner in the Old Fort Cafe served by costumed interpreters. After hanging out - late 1800's style - by a blazing campfire, it will be time to bunk down in the historic Murray House, the replica home of A.C. Murray and his family when he was the fort manager in the 1890s.
"Morning may bring the sound of sheep hooves on the boardwalk or the crow of our rooster, but a hearty breakfast will await in the warm, cozy cafe," said Weir. "After breakfast, students will head back home 118 years older."
The time travel experience is just reward for the class video in which the students acted out scenes telling the story of the last spike driven in the first Trans Canada rail line, the Canadian Pacific Railway's ceremonial completion at Craigellachie, B.C., in 1885.
