The Captain Nichola Goddard Day of Peace for Students
“Every year, kids who didn’t know each other in the morning are hugging goodbye
at the end of the day. It gives me goosebumps,” says Susan Casey, Principal of East St. Margaret's Elementary School
in Indian Harbour, Nova Scotia.
Share this article on:
That’s part of what moves her to run the annual Goddard Peace Conference. The
conference creates a forum for students to learn about conflict resolution and community – all in honour of Captain
Nichola Goddard who lost her life during the Canada’s mission in Afghanistan.
In 2018, the conference received support from Veterans Affairs Canada’s Commemorative
Partnership Program. “It [the funding] allows us to have honorariums for presenters and awards for
the participants,” says Susan. “In other years, it’s allowed us to do some publicity, through
community news, and outreach as well.”
Transcript / Captions
The original Goddard
Peace Conference was started in 2007 and it was started by the then principal,
Brendon MacGillivray.
Our school itself was built…
East St. Margaret's
was built in 1958, and it was built as a consolidated school.
We are a community
that has fishing embedded in family life and Mr. MacGillivray
was noticing that
within the community, he was hearing lots of talk of conflict that was happening.
And then noticing the
students when they were coming into the building were really dysregulated,
and upset, and didn't
seem to have the skills to be able to turn it around. He had the idea of creating a
one-day,
major focus on
learning around peaceful skills.
And really wanting the
students to experience ways that they could create peace within themselves,
within their
families, their community, our country, and even internationally.
He had a connection
to Captain Nichola Goddard. He knew that Captain Goddard had been killed in Afghanistan
the year before and
reached out to the family and asked them if they would be willing
to have the
conference named after her and they agreed.
We had arts and
journaling. We've had also workshops where people share their stories and experiences.
We had Dr. Shelly
Whitman from the Roméo Dallaire Child Soldiers Initiative come and speak and really tell the
kids
about what life is
like for some children the same age in other parts of the world.
When I was in Grade
6, I did attend the Goddard Peace Summit. I remember coming to the school
and just being so
excited to learn more about Nichola and just learn about peace and giving back,
how to be kind, and
integrate that into my community and my school.
Since I've been here,
we've focused on different ways, different strengths,
maybe that students
could tap into to build those peaceful initiatives.
The Goddard Peace
Summit is an amazing conference for East St. Margaret's because we are such a small
school.
To be able to host
that event is definitely something unique and exciting for us.
I was impressed with
the amount of kindness that was given there.
Everybody was really,
really nice and everybody was really accepting
and really happy to
teach you about their experiences.
maybe that students
could tap into to build those peaceful initiatives.
It inspired me to
be…to try to be the best person that I could be and trying to take that into how I treat
others.
So, going forward for
our conference, we are trying to think of different ways to make it engaging and
exciting.
Within our Nova
Scotia curriculum, we really focus on and help the kids learn about four different
cultures.
One is the African
Nova Scotian, the Indigenous, the Gaels and the Acadians.
We're really a
diverse community in that way, which makes it awesome to be with the students here every
day.
I think the
importance of one person having the power to change multiple people really stuck with me.
You don't need a huge
crowd to make a big difference.
The outreach is important, Susan says, because it connects the students to the Veteran community. “We reached out
to the whole province for Legion participation, and we also talked to Camp Hill,” says Susan, referring to the
Veterans’ long term care facility in Halifax. For some of the older Veterans, it’s a long trip from the hospital
to the conference, but they are keen to see young minds learn.
How it all began – a soldier’s day for peace
In 2007, East St. Margaret's Elementary School principal, Brendon McGillivray, was seeing a lot of conflict
in the school community. He thought that a workshop-style “day of peace” for the Grades 5 and 6
students would help them understand one another. The Captain Nichola Goddard Day of Peace for Students
began that year and helps students experience ways to find peace within themselves, their families and their
community.
“Captain Goddard believed in ordinary people doing extraordinary things, and we want young people to
believe they are capable of extraordinary things,” says Susan. “Most of the students are motivated
to take action for peace when they return to their schools.”
Brendon McGillivray gained permission from the Goddard family to name the day after their daughter, Captain
Nichola Kathleen Sarah Goddard, who was killed during combat duty the previous year in Afghanistan. Each
principal since 2007 has built on the idea with the help of the school’s office administrator, Danette
McDaniel. She makes sure the tradition carries on.
Peace among people, and within
Everyone involved works to help the conference stay true to its values. “Most years, Sally or
Tim Goddard opens the conference, and we share a video about Nichola,” says Susan. “We talk
about her values of giving everyone a chance, and not being afraid to go after goals. Seeing the best in people
was part of Nichola’s work in the military. Her focus was on relationships, even in Afghanistan.”
At the 2018 conference, for example, there were nine workshops. Students from several schools attended each
session, rather than staying with the students they knew. Some workshops had military components, such as a
presentation by retired CAF and RCMP officer Phil McLelland, who served in Haiti during the devastating
earthquake in 2010. “He explained the situation after the earthquake and asked them: How would you
solve this? How would you keep it peaceful? The kids loved his workshop,” says Susan. Another presenter,
Dr. Shelly Whitman, described her work with the Roméo Dallaire
Child Soldiers Initiative. Students were shocked to hear that in some parts of the world children no
older than themselves were recruited by force.
Veterans have a continued presence at the conference. In Susan’s first year as Principal, she reached out
to The Royal Canadian Legion branches across Nova Scotia and has since had regular presentations from the
Berwick Branch. “Petty Officer First Class Peter Rigby, Petty Officer Second Class Peter Martin,
and Leading Seaman Chris Goddard—they’ve been fabulous,” Susan says. “They talk
about their experiences in Kuwait, Southeast Asia, Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and Bosnia. With real‑life
experiences, they can impress on students the importance of not taking peace for granted.”
Margaret Guildford, a Second World War Nursing Sister, also gave a presentation. Now in her nineties, she is
“a real firecracker,” as Susan puts it. “She showed the kids pictures from the war, and was
completely honest about her experience, but the kids were speechless and weren’t asking any
questions,” Susan says. A bit of Margaret’s military attitude may have come out at that point:
“She got stern with them and told them that they need to start talking. And that loosened the kids
up.”
Not all of the workshops had military themes: some focused on building peace within oneself through art, music,
yoga and martial arts. A Mi’kmaq Elder and Korean War Veteran, Bill Lewis, led a peace circle and a
smudging ceremony. An Acadian representative talked about the importance of food and culture to the community.
An African artist helped the students work on peace banners with another Fine Arts Specialist.
Looking onward
Veterans Affairs Canada is committed to honouring those who served Canada in times of war, military conflict and
peace, and to keeping the memory of their achievements and sacrifices alive for all Canadians. Funding is
available to organizations undertaking remembrance initiatives through the Commemorative
Partnership Program.