STUDENTS AT Bear Valley School in Stewart will have a chance to visit a historic mining town thanks to a mining conference held in their hometown last year.
Minerals North 2011 generated enough of a surplus so that $10,000 is to be provided for a field trip to visit Barkerville in the Cariboo, announced conference co-chair Angela Danuser.
“The school plans a trip every few years and it’s been a few years since the last one. So this is a good opportunity to become involved,” she said.
Visiting Barkerville is a perfect fit for an activity to come out of Minerals North, an annual regional mining conference held in a different location each year, because it incorporates a mining theme, Danuser continued.
“It definitely has an education component and when we ran it past the Mineral North head committee, they thought it was a fabulous idea,” she said.
There are nearly 70 students this year from kindergarten to Grade 12 at the school.
“Our hope is that as many students as possible will be able to go,” said Danuser.
She said the money will go a long way to defraying the expense of travelling from the small community to the Cariboo.
But when that trip can actually take place is not yet known because of the ongoing teachers’ contract dispute with the provincial government. Teachers aren’t taking part in extra curricular activities, for example.
The Stewart Minerals North committee has also provided $10,000 to the BC Children’s Hospital Foundation through the Mining for Miracles charity which is supported by the provincial mining and exploration industry and the hospital.
“We’ve had children from Stewart who unfortunately have needed the services of the [children’s] hospital so this is most appropriate,” said Danuser.
Donations from surpluses have become a tradition with the Minerals North conference.
The conference this year was held in Burns Lake and it’s in Terrace next year. The Terrace session will mark the 25th year of Minerals North conferences in northern BC.
