I’ve lived in Deep Cove for the past eight years, and in that time, I’ve never really learned anything about it. But after this project, I know more about my community than I ever have, and you can too! Check out our online historical walking tour of Deep Cove here!

Deep Cove Historical Walking Tour Pamphlet

There are a ton of different aspects to this tour. We made a physical pamphlet that you can pick up at the Deep Cove Cultural Centre, or check out in this post. Each stop was created by a student in our class, and has a few separate components. On the pamphlet, each stop has a small text summary. On the online tour, there is not only a longer summary, but also a historical image, an audio version of the summary, and a digital enhancement, which is different at every stop.

I was really excited for this project, as it’s the first I’ve done where I’ve actually gotten to collaborate with an organization in my community to build something that will last. Our driving question was “How can we uncover and share stories about our community?” We worked with the Deep Cove Heritage Society to update their historical walking tour, and make it more accessible. To start off this project, I went and did the original walking tour! A big issue I noticed with this tour is that I was never really sure where to stand, or what quite to look at. The map on the existing tour could be misread, as well. This feedback was really important to creating the idea for the updated and improved walking tour.

After going on the walking tour, I got to choose my stop! I chose to create the stop for the Deep Cove Cultural Centre, which is Stop 1 on the pamphlet and the digital version! I chose the Deep Cove Cultural Centre because I have a bit of experience with it; I’ve been a member of the Deep Cove Stage Society since 2015, and I’ve participated in several plays in the theatre in the Deep Cove Cultural Centre!

Now that I’d chosen my stop, it was time to research it! I used a variety of sources, but the most helpful was the book Echoes Across Seymour, by Desmond Smith, Eileen Smith, and Janet Pavlik. This book is a sequel to the book Echoes Across the Inlet, by Dawn Sparks and Martha Border. Both books compile the archives of the Deep Cove Heritage Society, and explain the history of Deep Cove and its surrounding areas. There’s a long passage in Echoes Across Seymour about the Deep Cove Cultural Centre itself, and all of the organizations contained within it.

I also got the chance to interview both Eileen Smith and Jim Slight! I talked to Eileen about the founding of First Impressions Theatre, and she told me a sweet story about how it was founded so they could put on a play that a class of elementary-schoolers wrote. Jim gave me a tour of the Deep Cove Cultural Centre, which I incorporated into my digital enhancement later on!

After researching, it was time to create the stop. This step was pretty simple, it just took some time because of how many parts there were to it. I struggled to narrow down all of my research to fit on the pamphlet, but I’m proud of the final summary! This step is all about one of the competencies we’re studying, which is historical perspective. The goal here was to include the perspectives of everyone involved with my stop! I was able to write a slightly longer piece on it for the online tour, but there were a lot of facts I liked that I didn’t get the chance to include, like the founding of First Impressions Theatre or the Mike Jarvis Memorial Scholarship.

For the digital enhancement section of my stop, I created a video tour of the Deep Cove Cultural Centre! This is when Jim Slight’s interview really helped me out; I got the chance to step inside and film the Deep Cove Shaw Theatre and the Seymour Art Gallery!
I also recorded an audio version of my summary, which you can listen to here. 

Once everyone had created their individual stops, we made the whole tour! There were a lot of separate pieces to this, so we split into two groups, and assigned roles to everyone. My group, the ‘Wolves’, chose to be in charge of creating the physical pamphlet, and I took on the role of text editor, along with Tamara. Our job was to collect everyone in the class’s stop summary, make sure it was the right length, and proofread it. This job was kind of stressful, as we had to finish it before the actual pamphlet could be designed. I also took on the role of collecting and editing citations, which was a bit less stressful. I think I did my best work this project while collaborating. I haven’t gotten the chance to collaborate with the PLP 12s this much outside of exhibitions, so it was a great experience to get to work with them!

Last week, the tour was finally completed, and I got the chance to walk it with my family! It was amazing to be able to show them something that I’d created with my class, and that could last in our community.

This was the first project that we completed in our new quarter system, and I actually really liked it! I got the chance to focus on this project really intensely, as I was only in one other class at the same time.

I believe that the answer to our driving question, “How can we uncover and share stories about our community?” is to show multiple perspectives in our writing, so the true, full story can be told.

I look forward to our next chance to work with an organization in our community!

Thanks for reading my blog post!