(Middle, left to right) Matt Hagedorn and Kai Matsalla, Nathanael Heyburn and Aidan McLean at City Hall with officials (Photo courtesy the City of Lethbridge)

By Justin Goulet

Winning student submission chosen in flag pole competition

Feb 19, 2020 | 12:17 PM

LETHBRIDGE, AB – A team-up between the City of Lethbridge and Lethbridge College has given students the opportunity to let their creativity fly.

The city plans to permanently fly the Blackfoot Confederacy flag as well as the Reconciliation Lethbridge flag, as part of its continued work towards reconciliation.

The idea is to also have dedicated poles to fly flags for different community events such as Lethbridge Pride Week and the Alberta Summer Games.

The only way that can be done currently is by lowering the city’s own flag.

As part of a project through the local college, students in the Engineering Design and Drafting Technology program were challenged with designing a new pole to accommodate special events.

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The Reconciliation Lethbridge Advisory Committee received and deliberated on the submissions, landing on two final designs.

Aidan McLean and Nathanael Heyburn were chosen as the winners, with their design inspired by Blackfoot culture.

“The biggest take-away for me was having to consider the cultural elements of the final design plus breaking down the technical elements to a group of people who don’t do this type of work,” Heyburn said in a city-issued release.

“It was a good experience and one not many students can say they’ve gotten to go through.”

Students were provided with a day of learning at the beginning of the project to find out more about Blackfoot culture.

The second-place team was made up of Matt Hagedorn and Kai Matsalla.

“Before our day of learning, I had limited exposure to Blackfoot culture other than what I had learned in high school, but it was a pretty huge learning opportunity and totally something I’d recommend to anyone studying in our program,” Matsalla said in the release.

“It was super exciting to be part of a project that could potentially be seen by everyone that walks up to City Hall for years to come.”

The winning student design will be considered, along with other participants from outside the college, during the final proposals for the permanent flag pole.

That’s targeted for completion before September 2020.