Welcome to my history project on the historical naming of Abbotsford Schools. For this project, I wanted to explore the process and reasoning behind how schools were named—with local and national. The purpose for this project is to answer the what, why, and how. What is the process of naming a school?, why do they choose certain people to name their schools?, and how do these schools best represent, if they do, their historical person? Naming schools in British Columbia hold major importance for the local community, as it is a way of representing and honoring a person.

In Abbotsford, there are a total of 46 schools, in which approximately 17 are named after a person. For this project, I have chosen to concentrate on three schools that are focused on national historical Canadians, such as Terry Fox, Rick Hansen, and Gordie Howe. Before exploring these three schools, there is an opportunity to discover more about local (Abbotsford) historical figures and the connections between these Canadian figures.

The first tab, “Schools Named After Local Abbotsford Figures”, contains miniature biographies of local historical figures, such as: John Maclure, Margaret Stenersen, Mary Ten Broeck, and Dave Kandal. The second tab, “The Relationship Between Historical Canadian Figures”, focuses on finding connections between the schools containing the name of famous non-local Canadian figures.

A Special Thank You

A special acknowledgment to Rick Hansen’s Principal-Michael Hendricks, Terry Fox’s Principal-Angela Magnon, Fred Fox, and Kris Foulds at The Reach in Abbotsford. They have all been exceedingly kind in sharing information to help contribute to my project.