In January of 2011, Port Perry High School student Jake Robinson, took Project of Heart “to heart” in a unique way.  You can read about his endeavour in the following excerpt from the Port Perry High School Newsletter of February 10th, 2011.   Congratulations Jake!

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Port Perry High School participates in a national project:  Project of Heart.

“Project of Heart” (P.O.H.) is a hands-on, collaborative, inter-generational, inter-institutional artistic endeavour.  Its purpose is to commemorate the lives of the thousands of Indigenous children who died as a result of the residential school experience. It commemorates the families and communities to whom those children belonged.  This year, our students have adopted three Residential Schools and created over 600 tiles to honour these children.  We have been very fortunate to have former Residential School students relate their experiences to our students.  This year Cliff Standingready, author and Oshawa resident, spoke to our class and shared his story.  Jake Robinson, a grade 11 student was so inspired by this project that he has taken on the job to commemorate 200 children on his own and during his free time.  His artistic talent speaks volumes of his passion for this commemorative project. To date our students have commemorated over 1100 children and we won’t stop until every child is honoured.  The tiles are sent to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission meetings held all over the country for the next four years.  Our tiles to date were shown at the first National Event held in Winnipeg at The Forks from June 16 to 19, 2010.  The final resting place for our tiles will, hopefully, be at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights currently being built in Winnipeg.