By Avery Adair – Seaway Scoop
With their motto, “Connect, Educate, Empower,” Seaway District High School students were introduced to an interactive exhibition called ‘Tour for Humanity’ on November 14. The experience is part of a provincial and Upper Canada District School Board initiative to increase education at schools about the Holocaust.
As a human rights organization established in 2013, Tour for Humanity seeks to educate Grade 3-12 students on the awful impacts of genocide and war on societies. Approximately 188,000 students have since experienced the Holocaust Bus presentation, across Canada.
Their friends at The Simon Wiesenthal Centre of Holocaust Studies (inspired by Holocaust survivor/Nazi Hunter/writer/human rights activist Simon Wiesenthal,) generously donated the necessary funds to begin the initial stages of the project. Without this, Tour for Humanity would have been set back by years’ worth of progress.
Five Seaway classes from Grades 9-12 engaged in three of the different interactive presentations including: The Global Experience, Holocaust: Then and Now, and The Canadian Experience.
Grade 12 student, Kaiden Lewis, was a part of the Global Experience: Genocide and its meaning presentation, and expressed his thoughts on the impact of the presentation for students. “It wasn’t as personal for me, but I think that for the many students who know people that were personally affected it is very impactful,” says Lewis.
Another Seaway student, Grade 10 Elizabeth Powell-Wozny, told us her impressions after attending the Holocaust: Then and Now presentation.
“It was overall very informative, and I learned more about the Holocaust than I knew about. It was an eye-opener,” she said.
Elena Kingsbury, Seaway’s honoured guest speaker, gladly agreed to an interview, where she explained her personal motivations for working at Tour for Humanity.
“My grandparents are both Holocaust survivors who were fortunate to have escaped,” explained Kingsbury. “This started off my interest in discovering more about these atrocities from a very young age.”
She voiced her firm belief that teaching youth to recognize genocide and the importance of knowing the facts will spark the change necessary to learn from our mistakes.
After the closing of another Remembrance Day Ceremony hosted by Carrie Gilmour’s Link Crew, and the informative presentation of the Holocaust bus, this November and future ones, will be “eye-openers” to the peace we gratefully possess. Let us never forget, and may we continue to combat ignorant violence with the knowledge needed for peace.
The Seaway Scoop is a weekly feature column published in partnership with The Leader during the school year. This year’s authors are Avery Adair, Merab Ali, and Addison Grant.