The golden nugget: Saskatoon student wins contest for Klondike Gold Rush film

Grade 9 student Ethan Done sacrificed a month of his free time to create a special video about the Klondike Gold Rush, and now it's all paying off.

The Saskatoon resident is one of 26 winners from Canada's History for Kids Young Citizen program.

"Every ounce of my free time I used hammering out that video," said the 14-year-old Done. "It was perfect. It was a lot of hard work."

The program focuses on key components of Canadian citizenship and history. It works in combination with provincial heritage fairs, where students present their research on notable Canadians and events in our nation's history.

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Done is one of two winners from Saskatchewan. He attended Grade 8 at Fairhaven Elementary School at the time of the submission. His short film about the Klondike Gold Rush in the Yukon focused on how it affected Canadians and the economy.

Some of what he learned was surprising, he said.

Every ounce of my free time I used hammering out that video,- Ethan Done, Grade 9 student from Saskatoon.

"Donald Trump's grandfather got his start there, and you wouldn't expect someone like that to get their start in the Klondike Gold Rush but that's actually where it started," he said.

"I also learned how people can be resilient and move forward, even through the harshest conditions, in the search of wealth, which there was plenty of in the Klondike Gold Rush."

While he enjoys learning about business and politics, he said history also fits the bill.

"It's basically learning what to do in the future, because the mistakes we've learned from in the past must be learned from, in order to ensure we don't make those same mistakes in the future," he said.

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Two hundred students from across Canada participated in the contest. The top 13 winners were decided by a public online vote, and the remaining 13 were chosen by a panel of judges.

Done and the other recipients will travel to Ottawa this fall, where they will attend the Canada's History Youth Forum. He said he's looking forward to visiting museums on the trip.

"The war museum is one of the ones I'm looking forward to going to," he said. "I want to just experience the centre of Canada."