Hello! My name is Kirstyn Skelley and I am the person behind this research project. I am passionate about education, art, history, learning, and teaching. I was planning on graduating with my Bachelor of Arts with a History major this spring, but as I received my rejection letter for the 2021 PDP (teachers) program, I Read more about About Me![…]

Miss Stenersen was born in Tonsberg, Norway and moved with her mother and siblings to Matsqui in 1904 to reunite with her father who had been mining in the Yukon and Alaska. She attended elementary school in Ridgedale—just outside the Matsqui Prairie—wrote her departmental exams in Abbotsford and attended high school in Matsqui. She studied Read more about Margaret Stenersen[…]

Mary Ten Broeck had worked in the Abbotsford District from 1949 to 1967. She had spent her last teaching year at Upper Sumas School before retiring and moving to North Vancouver. While she worked in the school district, she had positions as a remedial teacher, a reading consultant, as a primary consultant, and had worked Read more about Mary Ten Broeck[…]

Born on March 18, 1930 in Saskatchewan, Dave moved to the village of Matsqui with his sisters and parents in 1945. Dave began his career teaching basketball, P.E., and Social Studies at his former high school, Phillip Sheffield, and at Abbotsford Senior from 1954-1956. Dave had been elected as a school trustee in 1971—Dave was Read more about Dave Kandal[…]

The first “white settler” of B.C., the founder of Abbotsford. John Maclure was born in Wigtownshire, Scotland in 1831. John arrived in B.C.  in 1868—the British Government wanted young men to travel to B.C. to take part in the development of the area. John was a surveyor with the Royal Engineers Corp, aiding in planning Read more about John Maclure[…]