Canada 150 - Voices of St. Marys, a Rotary Literacy Project.             
   
 
Canada is celebrating its 150th birthday in 2017. Education and Literacy is one of six areas of focus for Rotary. To celebrate the occasion and to highlight the significance of this birthday, the Rotary Club of St. Marys is working with our local schools to stimulate student interest in our history and to create student products that focus on our formative years and what St. Marys might be like in the future.
 
Primary grade students have been challenged to create a piece of artwork that highlights to them something that is important about St. Marys.
 
Junior students have been asked to write two one page stories : the first can be factual or a legend explaining some aspect of St. Marys, today or sometime over the past 150 years; for the second story we ask the students to use their imagination and describe what St. Marys will be like in 2025. Student work from the second stories will be kept in a time capsule and stored in a display case at the public library to be unlocked in 2025 during one of our centennial anniversary events where the stories will be shared with students, family and Rotarians.
 
Grade 7 & 8 students are creating You-Tube type videos or PowerPoint presentations about one day in the life of St. Marys over the last 150 years. They may present this information from the point of view of an on-site reporter or newscaster.
 
Completed artwork and stories will be displayed in the storefront windows at 115 Queen St. E. and at the local library and museum. The videos and PowerPoint presentations will be posted on the web sites of the public library and the Rotary Club of St. Marys. The completed projects will be on display throughout 2017.
 
Any student who did not have the opportunity to contribute to our Canada 150 project is welcome to prepare work and submit it to any Rotarian or through their school.
 
Special thanks to the teachers from Little Falls Public School, Holy Name of Mary school and St. Marys DCVI Elementary and to the students who participated in this literacy project. We hope you had fun while you learned about the history of your community. We encourage the students and their families to visit the display locations not only to see their stories, artwork or videos but also to explore the joy of reading and discover what else our local library and museum have to offer.
 
If you are unable to open the video, please go to the Link "Rotary Club of St. Marys Facebook" on the home page of the Rotary Club of St. Marys -    www.rotarystmarys.ca
 
We have provided the St. Marys Museum with all of the submissions (artwork and stories) for the Canada 150 project including a USB stick which has all of the videos and PowerPoint presentations along with our information about the project, our application forms for each group and instructions provided to the schools. The Museum curator, Amy Cubberley, has agreed to archive all of the material for us.
Linda Schuyler
Literacy Committee Chair
December 31, 2017.