$30,000 means Rothesay museum can hire students for heritage project

By Mac Truman

Saint John Times Globe
Monday, June 18, 2001

The Rothesay Living Museum has landed more than $30,000 in federal grants to keep five students working this summer at preserving the town’s heritage.

Stephen Baird, due to graduate this month from Rothesay High School, has been working at his summer job with the museum since March, but it was only Thursday night that he found out he actually has the job.

That’s when Rothesay High art teacher Brian Perkins got word that Ottawa has a complex system of funding for the project.

Mr. Baird said he was too busy studying for final exams, but his mother took the message. “It was a relief. Since last year, Mr. Perkins has been saying, ‘The grant will come through. We’ll hear in a week from now.” And then there would be times when the grant didn’t arrive, and we’d apply for another one.”

The decision arrived in the nick of time for the 12-week project, which will rely on the high school’s multimedia computer equipment for most of its work, Mr. Perkins said.

“Thank goodness. I had already prepared myself for not doing it. Now I have to get myself back on track . . .

“Today was our deadline,” he said Friday. “The computers will be dedicated to specific tasks and functions, but people will be wanting them back in their classrooms by the time the classes start in the fall.”

The money includes $24,000 from Industry Canada’s Digital Collections Program to create a website called “Rowing: The Legacy of Renforth.”

There is also a $2,500 make-work grant from Human Resources Development Canada, and a further $5,500 from Canada’s SchoolNet Grassroots Program. The Museum will spend that last grant on equipment and software for the project. Mr. Perkins credits Fundy Royal MP John Herron for straightening out a massive number of details to make the grants work with one another.

Mr. Baird, whose salary was paid since March by the Town of Rothesay, has been working with the Rothesay Heritage Preservation Board and the Rothesay Historical Society to expand the museum’s collection from the former Village of Rothesay, as well as starting an artifact collection from Fairvale, East Riverside-Kinghurst and Wells.

Owen Hetherington has been hired to work on designing the expanded website; Erica Schollenberg will trace the history of rowing in Renforth and Saint John from the Great Race of 1871 and the Paris Crew on Tyne, down to Ed Winchester’s participation in the 2000 Sydney Summer Olympics; Anna Stroud will create original artwork on the sport of rowing; and Greg Paciga will create audio-video clips of the Renforth Rowing Club and the spoken memory of Rothesay’s Seniors.