MOOSE JAW — Area students put their creative talents to work for this year’s regional Heritage Fair, as their projects ranged from the moose to community businesses to lacrosse to surviving a plane crash.
The Western Development Museum hosted the event on May 14, with more than 80 students from the Moose Jaw area producing 60 projects using cardboard posters and props to accompany their presentations.
The top three winners will attend provincials on Wednesday, June 4, in Regina.
A miraculous tale of survival
Sloane Willner, a Grade 8 student from Davidson, focused her project — “Luck, Skill, and Miracles” — on a plane crash from May 5, 1979, where the aircraft left Estevan and crashed into Idaho state’s mountains.
On that plane was her great-great uncle Don Johnson, 50; his daughter Donna, 17; his son-in-law Brent Dyer, 24, who was married to another daughter; and pilot Norm Pischke. Don and Norm died, while Donna and Brent survived with major injuries. For two weeks, they lived on the few supplies the plane carried — they ate toothpaste — before walking to find help.
The duo found an old mining camp and phoned the police, who took them to the hospital.
Willner explained that her mom suggested she focus on the story of Donna, who is her second cousin once removed. The youth thought it was a great story to tell since very few people knew it, although her friends were “super interested” once they heard the tale.
The Grade 8 student said her favourite part of the story was when a whisky jack bird — the Canada jay — visited the crash site several times and swirled around Donna and Brent as they walked for help.
“We kind of think that, ‘Well maybe that was Don,’ because he had succumbed to his injuries after the crash, so we kind of think that was a sign of the bird leading them out of the site,” Willner said.
Donna is still alive, but the student didn’t speak to her about the project. Instead, she relied on the book “The Sacrament,” by Canadian journalist Peter Gzowski, who interviewed the survivors. The family “strongly believes” the book accurately portrays what happened.
“There was a lot of miracles happening there,” Willner added.
A mooset interesting topic
Nora Mitchell, a Grade 4 student at Westmount School, dug into moose because she thought the animal was cool and wanted to learn more about it. Specifically, through reading books and browsing the internet, she discovered that the mammal has four stomachs and can live up to 20 years.
With a chuckle, she said she had never seen a moose in person, but her parents have.
Meanwhile, this was Mitchell’s first year participating in the Heritage Fair and she had a great time making the poster board. She also enjoys history, especially learning about animals.
A rocky situation
Etnee Clarke, in Grade 6 at Kyle Composite School, focused her project — “The Moving Mountain” — on the town of Frank, Alta., in the Crowsnest Pass, which was founded in 1901 and then nearly destroyed on April 29, 1903, after a landslide hit.
Accompanying the student’s presentation was a diorama with several cardboard homes, Lego people, and a miniature mountain that allowed her to pour rocks down the slope onto the town.
She explained that she chose the topic because her family drove by the site many times while on camping trips. Her dad told her about the incident, while he took the family to the interpretive centre.
“I thought (the story) was really devastating and sad, but also I found it really cool to learn about,” the youth said.
Two interesting things Clarke learned about the rockslide are that 15-month-old baby Gladys Ennis survived the event and died in 1997 at age 94, while two weeks before, miners felt the mountain tremble but didn’t think it was anything to worry about.
“I just find history super cool in general,” Clarke added.
