PROGRAMMING FOR CHILDREN
Understanding and, in particular, experiencing their own connections to the people and places around them is invaluable for children in so many ways. Learning about their own and their community’s history provides a base from which they can explore their world and help them answer that most fundamental of questions: “how did this come to be?”
Our history – our heritage – is best lived and experienced, understood through the things we can touch and feel, and passed on in a way that touches our hearts and our imaginations. To help children in the local area strengthen their connections to their own community, we want to provide an opportunity for them to visit Sheringham Point Lighthouse, to learn about its history and operations, to appreciate its significance and understand why it is being conserved. It is also our hope to inspire them – and, through them, their families and friends – to take a personal interest in further exploring their community and helping to protect the future of the Lighthouse.
TO ACCOMPLISH THIS, WE HAVE ESTABLISHED TWO PROGRAMS SPECIFICALLY FOR CHILDREN:
School Program: "Exploring the Lighthouse"
“EXPLORING THE LIGHTHOUSE” is a school-based program designed to work with children in grades 4 and 5. To date we have worked with two schools in the Sooke area – John Muir School and Sooke Elementary – over several years, and we are intending to expand the program to all four Sooke elementary schools, and perhaps even other schools as well, when resources permit.
Created, designed and delivered by Ian Fawcett & Kathleen Arnason of Change Canada Consultants (our program partners), the program includes in-classroom sessions where we talk about the history of the lighthouse, and what lighthouses are all about. And then we arrange a class visit to the Lighthouse, where the children get to see and experience their community history and heritage. They take photos of what they see and experience, and then over the next few weeks they write a story about a lighthouse. Their creations are then compiled into an on-line book.
For more details about “Exploring the Lighthouse”, please click here.
International Award of Excellence
“Exploring the Lighthouse” is delivered in conjunction with our partners The National Trust for Land and Culture and Change Canada Consultants Ltd. In 2019, the program was presented to the International National Trusts Organization (INTO) at its biennial meeting in Bermuda. INTO is a worldwide conservation organization that represents and helps coordinate the work of National Trusts from about 70 nations around the world. Competing against many other conservation and public education programs, “Exploring the Lighthouse” was chosen to receive the first ever International Award of Excellence. A wonderful recognition for a program that we all enjoy so much!
"Lightkeepers" Program
The LIGHTKEEPERS PROGRAM is for children aged 6 to 12, and is a fun and easy way for them to be able to help protect and preserve Sheringham Point Lighthouse.
To be ELIGIBLE to be appointed as a LIGHTKEEPER, a child must:
- Have visited the Lighthouse
- Read about or have been taught about the history of the Lighthouse
- Done something to help preserve and protect the Lighthouse. This can include such things as raising funds, volunteering (such as helping to clean up the site), or it can include writing a story, taking a photograph or drawing a picture and passing it on to the Society for us to use in helping to protect the site.
It is the RESPONSIBILITY of a LIGHTKEEPER to:
- Encourage their parents, other family members and friends to visit the Lighthouse
- Tell people what they like about the Lighthouse and why they believe it should be protected
- Continue to help preserve and protect the Lighthouse.
