Doing your homework can pay off in a big way sometimes, just ask 15-year-old Heritage Heights student Dominic Shoop who recently won a trip to Ottawa thanks to his hard work on a class project.
In May, three Heritage Heights students moved on to the national level in the Young Citizens Heritage Fair, which saw them each explore an area of Canada’s heritage and make a video detailing it.
Shoop chose to explore the history of the Flintlock pistol, and even crafted his own version of an 1800s era replica out of wood and metal to feature with his project.
“I thought it was so cool and it has a lot of neat back ground,” Shoop said. “You could hold three or four in your jacket so you didn’t have to load them, and it has led to the evolution of guns today.”
The videos went online at the beginning of the summer for one month where it was up to the public to vote on their favourites and choose the two representatives from Alberta to send to Ottawa for a youth history forum.
Shoop said he went door-to-door asking his neighbours to vote for him trying to round up as many supporters as possible, but had no idea how he was doing in the contest.
“After school ended (for the summer) it was a waiting game, and I would check my email every few hours expecting something to come in saying ‘you did win’ or ‘you didn't win’,” Shoop said. “I eventually stopped doing that by the beginning of August because I figured if someone had won they would have told someone already.”
Voting closed mid-July and the next month Shoop was told that he’d been selected.
The trip was scheduled for Oct. 30, a day after Shoop was supposed to get back from a family trip to Jamaica. Instead, they packed a little extra and ended up heading right from Jamaica to Ontario, which for Shoop ended up causing a few problems along the way. It turns out trying to take replica 1800s-era firearms across boarders can add an extra headache to your travels.
“Since they had wanted us to bring something from our project to Ottawa, I decided, well you know last minute packing, to throw in my replica pistol in my carry-on,” Shoop said with a laugh. After dealing with multiple security units, guards in bulletproof vests, and getting a letter from the head of Jamaica’s security department, Shoop had to dismantle his replica to get it back over the boarder and throw it in a checked bag.
“She said the only way you can bring it on the plane is if you broke it, So that hit me like a ton of bricks, I wasn't going to let that thing break,” Shoop said “After a few minutes of being hysterical and dramatic, the captain came out… and eventually we checked it and got on the plane.”
Once in Ottawa, Shoop attended the forum at the Canadian Museum of History with the other Alberta Representative, Abby Peterson from Rocky Mountain House. They were also able to tour parliament, and Shoop said since it was two days after the tragic shootings security was noticeably heightened.
“The only thing we didn't get to see was the session that was going on inside, so I was a little bit disappointed,” he said. “I watched the changing of the guards with Abby at the memorial, so that was really neat to see. They had the bagpipes and everything was so official…it was really interesting.”
But Shoop said his favourite part of the trip had less to do with history, and more to do with candy.
“My favourite highlight of the whole trip was when we got to go trick or treating,” Shoop said. “We went around a couple communities, we went by the prime ministers house - he gave out small bags of candy so that was pretty awesome.”
And now that he’s back home in Okotoks, Shoop said he still can’t believe a school project led him on a trip to the nation’s capital.
“I was happy that I got a really high mark on it, and I was like ' hey, that's good enough for me, I passed my course" and then we went to provincials, and it was like ‘hey I won again, imagine that,’ and then it got serious,” Shoop said. “With everything I build, it becomes a part of you, because you spend so much time creating it and making it so good… it should be recognized I feel, because you work so hard.”
