How and Why X-Project Began

How and Why X-Project Began

Joe Webb was a founding member of the X-Project organization on campus in 1965. While the organization became ratified that year, the origin of X-Project dates back to 1957. This document is Yanik Gallie’s treatment of notes written by Webb on how and why X-Project began. Webb graduated in 1965 with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology, and intended to return for a Bachelor of Education. Before he could enroll, he was offered the position of principal on a teacher’s permit at the Lincolnville school. Webb then pursued his teacher’s license during summer school for four years and continues to substitute at the age of 74.

The origin of X-Project traces back to Webb’s call for help to his friend Rollie Chiasson who was still at the university. Chiasson posted a sign in the dining hall asking for volunteers who might want to take a drive down to Lincolnville and work with some students hoping at least a couple people would show up at the designated date and time.  Much to their surprise, 13 people volunteered. At the same time, Joan Dillon and a number of friends from Antigonish were teaching pottery in Lincolnville. They too travelled in borrowed cars from Antigonish each week. The two groups joined forces primarily to share transportation. They quickly began to share programming ideas working with students and adults to promote literacy, offering cubs and beavers, providing recreational programs, and more. X-Project is one of the oldest student societies on campus and has grown to include surrounding communities Guysborough, Paq’tnkek, and Pictou Landing.

Joe Webb’s wife, Nancy Webb, inspired him to write the origin story a year ago. According to Webb, the intent behind writing the story was to preserve the society’s initial commitment to “anonymity. If you look at old yearbooks, you will not find our names, and that is a good thing.” Webb added, “I am at peace with the fact that the small seed planted in 1965-66 at StFX has grown in scope and effectiveness. Joan Dillon, Lisa Lunney Borden, and the thousands of others have provided a wonderful example of how when one group chooses to help another, both groups benefit.” Webb remembered, “the first 20+ volunteers said they got more from X-Project than they ever gave, and I know that is true for me.” 

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1957-60

I was at Good Counsel Academy in Monastery as a student and was privileged to accompany the legendary Father Anthony Henry to Lincolnville on many occasions where he had established a community center from which he ran various programs, met many needs of this poor community, and got to know many of the folks there.

1960-65

I attended StFX and about midway through my studies Father Edo Gatto and Mr. Angus MacGillveray were instrumental in getting a university-owned building just off campus where they established Abelard’s coffee house. Many of us gathered there to play anagrams or chess and have organized a spontaneous discussion group about the social issues of our time. By the time I graduated, some of us were chagrinned that during those years of college revolts in U.S. and Canada about civil rights and concerns, our focus, including my own, were a tiddly-winks club which challenged the oxford debaters. I posted an announcement for an Apathy society and no one came to the meetings. In April of 1965, the drama society won the Dominion Drama Festival. Director Frank Canino wanted to redo the campus logo. That year, no StFX sports team went on to finals. He wanted the faces of drama rampant over a field of jock straps. So much about our concern for society while attending a university known world wide for the Coady institute and dedication to helping communities all over the world.

While speaking one day to Brian O’Connell who was upper administration at StFX at the time he commented that his twins both young with down syndrome (called Mongoloid in those days) were at a loss now that school was nearly over and there was no summer program. I discussed this at Abelard’s and along with several friends who, I hesitate to name them because I would miss most people, set up a program every evening for two hours at Abelard’s outside and inside. And, on Saturdays we went on field trips. All this while we worked summer jobs, but this was the spirit fostered at the coffee house and I have often felt since that Abelard’s had a lost to do with X-Project before the fact.

1965-66

I was waiting to go back next year for my Education degree when I received an urgent request through my godfather Mac Mackenzie from social services. A teacher from the school in Lincolnville had quit and they had no one as replacement. They arranged a temporary permit for me, and I became the principal. Please understand that no one wanted to go there in those days and the community was looked upon as a problem area. There were at least 31 organizations travelling to Lincolnville, Upper Big Tracadie and Sunnyville all with a solution for the “Lincolnville problem.” At that time, no black people lived within the Antigonish town limits. You could not be black and get supper at many restaurants. Even in Guysborough, the Nova Scotia home for colored children, it was a house of horrors and we in Nova Scotia were proud believers that we were not prejudiced. And, do not even get me started about indigenous folks.

While teaching in Lincolnville at a school ingeniously built in a location so that, wonder of wonders, it was only within busable distance of Lincolnville and Upper Big Tracadie. Mattie settlement kids who were white went to the school at Monastery while there was not a single white child at our school. I discovered that the junior and senior high kids, who were bussed to Guysborough, could not get homework help there because of the bus schedule and like most other parents then and now, theirs could not help much. Here arose the founding tenet of X-Project. Instead of coming to Lincolnville with an agenda, ask what the community-identified needs are then help. I asked my Abelard’s friends and we started to go down one or two nights a week to help with homework at the school rather than the center. I got that advice from locals too, some of who were Baptists and not comfortable with the center. Soon it was evident we needed more people. I got a friend, Rollie Chiasson, to post a small notice outside the dining hall. It read, “Are you interested in helping tutor students from nearby communities and a contact person?” We were amazed. Soon, we needed extra cars to help and added more nights. We also discovered that StFX students working with the young people were getting as much from the young people as they were giving.

Spring of 1966

As the college year wore down, the students who knew I was leaving the next fall wanted to form a society on campus to continue the process and maybe expand it. I again asked Mac and several other social-service types for help to set this up. We advised and the students agreed to some cornerstone provisions for the constitution as they became a functional college organization.

No publicity, no agenda. Just ask community people what they need and try to help. Avoid thank yous and all advertising that might attract those   looking for something good to put on a resume.

So now, what do we call this club? After soul searching by one and all, we picked the name X-Project because no one would even know what it was other than those who joined and there would be nothing to gain except possibly a good feeling that accompanies a good deed. And so, it was born when I left to teach in Canso that September. We had no idea how this project would flourish. As I understand it, the university hired Joan Dillon some years later as liaison between college and the project. She had been doing pottery along with the brilliant potter May K. MacDonald at the center and knew most of the people in Lincolnville and I believe even had been involved with the students in the project. I think there were several staff involved as well, but I have only a passing knowledge of the growth of the project until Joan invited me back for a celebration. I could see that she was beloved by one and all and had given heart and soul to continue the good work begun so many years before. I was pleased to see that the students had even branched out into forums and gatherings to discuss social issues and their work within the Indigenous and African Nova Scotian communities.

If it is important at all to know our origin, I hope my descriptions herein will serve to provide a factual account of the very crude beginnings of what has become such  a wide-ranging program. May we all continue to serve one another.

X-Project Calls for Volunteers

Lend a helping hand to one of StFX's finest organizations

Are you interested in deepening your understanding of issues that impact local Mi’kmaw and African Nova Scotian communities? Are you seeking ways to combat inequity and injustice of systemic racism in real and significant ways? Would you like to build friendships with neighbouring community members, youth leaders and peers? If you’ve answered yes to any of these questions, X-Project is the place for you to volunteer.

So, what exactly is X-Project? Well, it all began in 1965 when Joe Webb, a recent StFX graduate, was given the position of teaching principal in the Lincolnville school. At the time, Lincolnville, a historic Black loyalist community, faced many inequities along with considerable racism in the surrounding areas that meant that job opportunities, education, and support systems were limited. During his time as principal, Joe noticed that his students were having difficulty completing their homework. He was determined to find some way to help them out. He called his friend Rollie Chiasson to discuss the issue, and realized that many of his friends who were still in university might be able to come out and help some of his students. He also spoke with community members to discuss how to best go forward with this idea. The students he contacted posted a sign just outside of meal hall calling for volunteers willing to drive to the Lincolnville school and help out. Their hopes were that at least a couple of people would show up at the designated date and time. It was a pleasant surprise when 13 people showed up, enthusiastic and willing to help out. 

Around the same time, Margie Boyle, Kay Cameron, and Joan Dillon were travelling to Lincolnville three times a week to teach a pottery class. They had been inspired to do this after the tragic passing of Giles Gaudry, an itinerant artist who had begun teaching pottery in the area as a way to give back to the community that welcomed him in. These women continued his legacy of teaching pottery with the help of Mother St. Phillip, Father Anthony, and men from the Third Order of St. Augustine’s. They not only taught pottery class, but as relationships with the community grew stronger, they helped to create Father Anthony’s ABC Band as well as the cubs and scouts programs. They eventually needed to recruit more volunteers and soon a group of about 30 people were coming down, along with members of the Sisters of St. Martha.

Though initially the group offering homework help and the group doing pottery stayed separate, eventually the two groups decided to merge so that transportation could be shared. Joan Dillon negotiated a bus deal with Dr. Remi Chiasson, Superintendent of schools who granted them the weekly use of a very large bus at a reasonable price and soon the whole group began traveling together. At the time there were approximately 98 children and about 30 families in Lincolnville. Though the two groups joined forces primarily to share transportation, they quickly began to share programming ideas and worked with students and adults to promote literacy, offer cubs and beavers, provided recreational programs, and more. In March of 1966, the group of volunteers sat down and wrote a constitution that formed the society now known as X-Project. The “X” in X-Project was actually chosen to represent the importance of operating as an “unknown factor”- that is, not asking for recognition or going into communities with a personal agenda, but rolling up your sleeves, listening and understanding community needs, and working alongside them with determination in a quiet manor. So, the core intentions of this group were quite simple; only go to the community if invited and welcomed, respect the wishes of the community and respond directly to the community’s requests.

Over the years X-Project quickly grew to include more communities and more members. The group began to organize many community building events including well-attended teach-ins that focused on Indigenous issues in 1968 and the impact of racism on African Nova Scotians in 1969. X-Project has held numerous Saturday programs, bowling days, swimming days, skating parties, youth leadership weekends, and literally thousands of nights in communities. In more recent years, X-Project has helped to bring some important keynote speakers to campus including Wab kinew in 2015, Senator Sinclair in 2016, Buffy Sainte-marie in 2017, and Desmond Cole in 2018, in keeping with their long tradition of discussing important ideas relating to equity and justice. Thousands of St.F.X. students have volunteered over the past 50+ years and hundreds of community members have been consistently involved since the beginning. What began as a small group of students committed to working alongside one local community to support children’s learning has grown into a phenomenal, strong family of students, alumni, youth, and community members all working together toward common goals. 

Photo: Lisa Lunney Borden

Today, X-Project works with five African-Canadian and Mi’kmaw communities in the surrounding area; Paqtnkek, Pictou Landing, Antigonish, Sunnyville and Lincolnville. We continue to offer small group educational assistance, recreational and leadership programs for the youth in these communities. Each week a number of student volunteers board vans and buses and head out to the communities to work with the children in their homes or in community centers, helping with homework, playing educational games, doing activities and being a mentor. Also, approximately four times each term, youth from the communities are brought to the St.F.X. campus for recreational programs such as Sports days, Halloween and Christmas Parties, swimming, bowling, and skating. Each year we also work with the teens in the communities to provide youth leadership programs. This often involves several Saturday trips in to the university to meet as a group and participate in activities and workshops that help to develop leadership skills. The youth leaders also help to plan workshops and activities for their own communities and act as leaders for recreational programs and weekly educational assistance. Each March, the youth leaders come to St.F.X. to participate in the youth leadership weekend where they engage in activities and workshops that they have helped to plan throughout the year.

X-Project continues to be almost entirely run by volunteers and the success of X-Project rests solely on the interest, initiative, and commitment of students on this campus. Over the years it has become inexplicably clear that both the student volunteers and the community youth gain so much from being involved with X-Project. Volunteering with X-Project gives you the opportunity to learn about yourself and others, take breaks from the overwhelming university life, foster beautiful relationships, connect with communities in a meaningful way and work towards common goals of greater equity and justice.

We’re always looking for more volunteers to join the family! If this sounds like something you’d love to do then why not become part of the crew of students that heads out to communities weekly or helps out during the various planned events on campus? Perhaps you know all about X-Project already and are keen to take on a leadership role. You can still apply to be part of our Student Branch executive using this form https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=x6tGjAuWJEGJUBYosrGS-VaWTnL0S8xOvtUiLOfuj2BUMFlDR0M2N1JCODdDUlZRV0JaSlVHMVNOSS4u. Available volunteer positions include community coordinators, youth leadership coordinators, saturday program coordinators, transportation coordinator and office manager.  

If you’d like to get involved or want some more information, just e-mail us at xproject@stfx.ca or lborden@stfx.ca! We will also be society night on September 6th and you can join us for our volunteer orientation on September 20th! You can also find us on Facebook (fb.me/stfxproject), Instagram (@stfxproject), and Twitter (@stfxproject) to stay in the loop!