In October 2011, Kim Bruton from Sir Robert Borden High School in Ottawa contacted Project of Heart after hearing an interview regarding the Project on the CBC. It took no time for her to involve her Grade 12 “Canada: History, Identity, and Culture” course. Here’s what some of her students had to say after having completed the five-part education module, which commemorated students who died while attending an IRS, including those who lost their lives at St. Paul’s IRS in Cardston, Alberta:

“It shocks me that today in a supposedly fair and equitable society that Aboriginal people are treated like second-class citizens. The conditions that they have to withstand on reserves are jaw-dropping, things that most of us take for granted. The project was definitely eye-opening as I had heard about Residential Schools beore but not to the same extent as I did while working on this project. It still amazes me that such actions were tolerated in Canada.” – Becky Underhill

“To be completely honest, I barely had any idea of what occurred in Residential Schools before embarking on the Project of Heart. I was very shocked to say the least when I found out the atrocities that occurred. I am proud to be a part of it and playing my part to make a difference.” – Sarah Agulnik

“What struck me most during the Project of Heart was just how real and horrible the experiences of Aboriginal children were. The tiles are a very tangible way to represent the deaths of the children. When the tiles were laid out in fromt of me, it truly began to hit me, that each of those colourful tiles was there representing a soul of a lost child. As an Aboriginal student, in a mainly non-Aboriginal school, I often have to deal with ignorance. People seem to think that Aboriginal people get all sorts of benefits without reason….The awareness that this project raised, gives me hope that the message will continue to spread and the ignorance that exists toward the Aboriginal community will be eliminated.” –  Lindsay Bilodeau

“Project of Heart was enlightening to say the least. It wasn’t necessarily the things that we did, but what we gained as a result of what we did. It forced us to take a look at the IRS system. It gave us perspective. It made us think deeper and work harder on an issue we just didn’t know enough about. PoH taught us how to care about this issue. It was truthfully, an excellent experience.” –  Nicola Milutinovic

And finally, Brad McDonald offers his insights:

“Learning about how these children lost not only their language and culture, but also their families, was really depressing. Every bad thing I researched motivated me to work as hard as I could on this project to raise awareness to other students.”