The Holdin' Ground Project has been developed to record the intangible cultural heritage of the Bay Roberts area before older citizens pass away and it is lost.

Partnerships have been formed with Ascension Collegiate High School, the town of Bay Roberts, the Bay Roberts Heritage Society, and the Bay Roberts Cultural Foundation in order to conduct interviews.

Students from Ascension Collegiate prepared appropriate questions, went to seniors' homes with their video, audio, or digital still camera equipment, and recorded interviews with seniors, or brought the seniors to Ascension Collegiate's video recording room to be interviewed.

The Results

The results have been amazing on a number of levels.

The whole community has gained these wonderful interviews which will be shared with the world through the Internet.

The 50 Plus Club was able to reach out to other seniors, in many cases older seniors, in the community and help them to bring forward their stories. The 50 Plus Club now has these interviews on DVDs that they can watch in the 50 Plus club with the new equipment that was purchased through the project. Ascension Collegiate Students will continue to come and teach them to use their new computer equipment - for Internet services such as email and for music at their dances.

Older Seniors were made to feel part of the community. They told their stories to the young people, and were able to see how much the young people appreciated and enjoyed being with them and hearing their stories.

The students learned to interview, to videotape interviews, and in some cases to edit and produce DVDs. They showed the Fifty Plus seniors how to use computers and other equipment that was purchased. They gained greater appreciation of the elderly in the community and learned about how people lived in the past.

Subject Matter

The students soon found they were conducting interviews with individuals, each of whom had special information based on their own particular life skills and experiences. Therefore, interviews were not confined to the set list of topics that had been developed through the initiating workshop. The interview was built around what the senior knew best and felt comfortable talking about.

Mr. Ray Barrett with salt fish on flakes
in Bishop's Cove (church in background)