Island students present research at P.E.I.'s Provincial Heritage Fair

More than 200 Island students from grades five through nine participated in this year's Provincial Heritage Fair on Friday. 

Another 20 students from grades 10 through 12 also participated as part of a pilot project. 

The P.E.I. Heritage Fair program provides an opportunity for students to dive into a part of Canadian history that interests them.

Leah Arsenault, a Grade 6 student at École Évangéline, focused her project on the thousands of Acadians deported from Prince Edward Island in the 1750s. 

"We picked this topic because it's such a big topic and there's so much information about it," she said. 

Arsenault said she researched the stories of those who were deported and learned about this piece of Island history from different perspectives. 

We take a tour of the 2025 Provincial Heritage Fair to peek into the past

4 days ago

Duration 2:33

The students who took part in the 2025 Provincial Heritage Fair learned a lot about Prince Edward Island's history along the way, from traditional Mi'kmaq games to the lore of lighthouses and the fun of an Acadian festival. Come along on a tour with CBC's Sheehan Desjardins.

A personal focus

For some students, the fair provided an opportunity to learn more about their family history. 

Maggie Densmore, a Grade 6 student at Belfast Consolidated, researched her family's military past. 

"I learned a lot because I didn't know that… a lot of these people even existed," she said. 

"A lot of people … they just get forgotten," Densmore said. "I thought it'd be nice to put a highlight on my family." 

Among other artifacts, Densmore displayed one of her family member's passports from 1975, as well as her military medals and patches. 

Densmore said her grandmother helped her gather information to put the project together. 

While she doesn't know what she will do next with her research, Densmore said she was excited to share her new knowledge with others. 

A common thread

Having recently moved to P.E.I. from Qatar, Chelsey Pelias said she wanted to learn more about the Island. 

She also wanted to learn more about the Philippines, she said, since she grew up there and is also Filipino. 

To merge those two ideas, Pelias created a project about what the Philippines and P.E.I. have in common. 

"I found out some pretty cool, amazing things," she said. 

"I found out they both have amazing farming traditions, like for example the Philippines grows rice and here they grow potatoes." 

A group of people came to P.E.I. from the Philippines last year to learn more about potato farming, Pelias said.