Over the past three years, Grade 8 students at Trinity College School have been contributing to the Watermark Project, a collective effort to share stories that highlight our connection to, and dependence on, water.

Created by the Swim Drink Fish organization in 2015, the goal of the project is to collect one story about water from every household in Canada. The stories are all true, and reflect an actual experience or moment when the writer connected with water in a way that was meaningful to them.

This year, 34 Grade 8 students contributed to the project, bringing the School’s total to 110 submissions over the past three years. Students write their pieces at the start of the water systems unit in science class.

The students shared reflections of their time on the lakes and rivers of Ontario, and also experiences in other provinces and countries. Many of the narratives spoke of the connections built through water, to family and friends and to animals and the natural world. And many included a plea to do more to protect our cherished waterbodies.

For example, one student wrote of helping baby turtles make their way safely to the water of Nogies Creek, Ontario. Another shared the experience of cliff-diving into the Atlantic Ocean at Northwest Point, Turks & Caicos. A student wrote of summers spent at Black Bank Beach on Bay St. George, Newfoundland, where he watched osprey and plovers. Another reminisced about seeing the sun set over the waters of Badalona Beach, Barcelona, on the shores of the Mediterranean.

You can read this year’s submissions at Trinity College School Watermarks 2021.

To read all 110 submissions from the past three years, go to Trinity College School - Watermark Project.