A group of students in the Halifax area is fighting to save North America’s oldest working lighthouse.
Anderson Fukala, a Grade 3 student at Sambro-Ketch Harbour Elementary, says he was inspired to save the Sambro Island Lighthouse after hearing a song about it.
“A couple days there I came home and I told my mom and I said ‘I want to do a fundraiser,’” says Anderson.
Sambro-Ketch Harbour Elementary is now backing Anderson, who is selling bracelets to raise funds for the lighthouse.
The school held an assembly on Friday during which time the students presented letters to local politicians, asking the government to save their lighthouse.
The Sambro Island Lighthouse is more than 250 years old and was designated a national historic site in 1937. Now, Sambro residents want another designation that would require the federal government to provide funding to maintain the lighthouse.
“I’m a descendant of the lighthouse keeper, the Gilkie family that were keepers on the island, and I’ve always wanted to see the island and the lighthouse preserved,” says Leslie Harnish of the Sambro Island Lighthouse Preservation Society.
“It’s a big piece of history and, without it, it just wouldn’t be Sambro,” says Anderson.
With files from CTV Atlantic's Kayla Hounsell
