HALIFAX: John Hennigar-Shuh, President of the Canadian Maritime Heritage Foundation, believes that every young Nova Scotian should have the opportunity to find their way around a boat.
“Boats and maritime skills are part of our heritage, and our connections with the sea,” said Hennigar Shuh.
“This is the driving force behind the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic’s new Boat School, a new and beautiful space where youth will build pride, purpose and a sense of belonging through hands-on maritime skills.”
According to Hennigar-Shuh a $100,000 donation from the RBC Foundation Community Spaces Grant will help ensure Boat School officially open its doors to underserved youth in the spring of 2026.
“The Canadian Maritime Heritage Foundation has a special connection with the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic,” said Hennigar-Shuh.
“Our primary mandate is to help the Maritime Museum gather the resources to become the best it can possibly be. This donation from the RBC Foundation is a perfect example of that mandate.”
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The Boat School is designed to develop creative and technical skills such as carpentry, mechanics, boat handling, sailing, ocean literacy, scientific observation, heritage preservation and interpretation.
For the past decade, programming has been delivered in small boat sheds at the museum.
The donation will support a lift to enable barrier free access to the second level of the building, and a barrier free boat loading lift to allow people with accessibility needs to be able to load and unload onto vessels from the floating docks.
Halifax is one of more than 35 Canadian towns and cities being impacted by a donation from the 2025 RBC Foundation Community Spaces Grant (formerly the RBC Foundation Community Infrastructure Fund), designed to fund retrofits, repairs or upgrades to existing public community buildings and spaces, as well as construction of new public spaces that reduce environmental impacts of their operation and/or improve its building accessibility.
In total, $16.2 million in single and multi-year donations were awarded this year; 27 to support projects related to improving accessibility and 19 grants to support projects related to improving sustainability.
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Other donations in Nova Scotia include support for a barrier-free main entrance at Valley Regional Hospital in Kentville, support for the installation of solar panels and insulation upgrades at the new Oxford Community Centre, and support for an efficient HVAC system at the Mi’kmaw Native Friendship Centre’s new facility in Halifax.
“From wayfinding signage to wheelchair ramps to solar panels, the RBC Foundation Community Spaces Grant is in place to increase environmental sustainability and improve the accessibility of the buildings where Canadians gather,” said Chris Ronald, Regional President, Atlantic Provinces, RBC.
“Donations are making community gathering places more accessible or sustainable in locally-relevant ways.”
The RBC Foundation Community Spaces Grant (formerly the RBC Foundation Community Infrastructure Fund) is open to hospitals, cultural institutions, community centres and other registered charities in Canada.
