Ruth Foster: “We don’t just raise fish – we mentor young people”.

Ruth Foster, former faculty associate in the Faculty of Education at Simon Fraser University, has influenced the lives of over 450 students through her work forming and maintaining the Centennial School Salmon Project. She was presented with a 2006 Canadian Environment Gold Award from Canadian Geographic on June 5 for her accomplishments in Environmental Learning during the 30-year history of the project, located in Mossom Creek.

During the early 1970s, Mossom Creek situated near Port Moody, was fished out. In 1976, Ruth and her colleague Rod MacVicar decided on that location for their hands-on stream-rehabilitation project. She built the project up from a single incubation box to a complete hatchery with an Education Centre. A “Magic Fish Bus” brings kids from the Centennial Salmon Club to tend to their hatchery duties each Wednesday. “Kids learn best by direct experience,” Ruth said. “Getting into the water in chest waders to collect aquatic insects…it’s fun, it’s interesting, and it’s surprising. Every day is a chance to learn something new.”

Foster retired from Centennial Secondary School in 2005 and is currently a sessional instructor in the Faculty of Education at SFU and remains heavily involved in the Centennial School Salmon Project. The $5,000 prize from Canadian Geographic has been donated to Burrard Inlet Marine Enhancement Society.

Click here to read the full article from Canadian Geographic.