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Surrey district elementary and secondary students displayed their creativity and history research skills at the Historica Foundation’s May heritage fair, jointly presented by the Surrey School District and the Surrey Museum.
Students from Riverdale, KB Woodward, East Kensington, Sunrise Ridge and Peace Arch elementary schools and North Surrey and Tamanawis secondary schools showed off their projects to the public. Attendees of the fair could learn about the Fraser Valley Gold Rush, Sto-Lo Longhouse, Laura Secord and the Vancouver Canucks, among others.
Tamanawis students Paul Gill and Manpreet Gill were winners of the Local History Award for their project on the Japanese-Canadian World War I veteran Zennosuke Inouye. During the Second World War the veteran was among the many Japanese-Canadians who were removed from coastal B.C. as a government security measure. Inouye’s eighty acres of Surrey land was subsequently sold. He struggled with authorities to regain his land, meeting with success in 1949.
Winners of the Laurier LaPierre medal were Marco Zenone and Chyanne Smith of North Surrey Secondary. The judges thought that the team’s project on the Asahi Japanese baseball team was “exceptional” for the manner in which it linked the past with the present. The Asahi team, inducted into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame in Ontario in 2003, was comprised of Japanese-Canadian players who successfully competed in senior city leagues from 1914 to 1941. The students showed how the historical sports figures could be useful role models in the racism which still exists today.
Congratulations to Chyanne Smith, who will be representing Surrey at the National Historica Fair in Ottawa in July. Funding is provided for one student to travel to the National Fair and the Chyanne-Marco team agreed that Chyanne would be the national representative.
The Heritage Fair is a project of the Historica Foundation. The mission of the Historica Foundation is to help Canadians come to know the fascinating stories that make Canada unique. For Surrey students, events such as the Heritage Fair ensure that they are firmly rooted in the present thanks to an understanding of the past.
Last Updated: May 26, 2009
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