While the Town of New Tecumseth continues its Banting Homestead fundraising campaign, a group of Caledon students became the first ever to have a field trip to the historic site last week.

About 20 students from King’s College School in Caledon were at the homestead last Wednesday morning to hear about Sir Frederick Banting’s life, and his connection to the community.

Principal Barbara Lord lives south of Tottenham, and has followed the story of the Banting Homestead in the news. When the school was planning an overnight fieldtrip to the Wye Marsh, they inquired about the possibility of a stop at the homestead along the way.

“I thought it would be fabulous,” she said. “Our school is centred around leadership, and he was certainly a leader in science.”

To complement its regular curriculum, the school focuses on leadership qualities through international and national leaders, but also leaders closer to home, such as Banting, she said. The school has a wall of portraits of prominent world leaders.

One student conducted a presentation on Banting before the field trip, so the students had some knowledge beforehand, but before that, few of them knew much about Banting. For the students, the fieldtrip was a good way to learn about Banting and his contribution to science, said student Taya Devlin.

“For a lot of us, we’re no more than a half-hour away (from the homestead), and we didn’t know,” she said. “It’s good to know what he did, and the contribution.”

The Ontario Historical Society, which still owns the homestead, granted the town permission to bring the students on to the property. The town’s purchase of the homestead does not close until June 30.

The students weren’t allowed in the buildings because of their current state of disrepair, but they were given an oral history of Banting by Garnet Madill, the caretaker of the property, and longtime Banting historian. The class also made a stop at the Museum on the Boyne, and Base Borden before carrying on to Midland.

For the Town of New Tecumseth, the 30-minute stop at the homestead marked the first in what is hoped to be a public future of the historic property. Mayor Mike MacEachern said while the town did not solicit the school to visit, it is exactly the sort of thing he is hoping for in the future.

“It’s an example of what will happen more and more when people realize that it is there,” he said. “It’s a neat thing because it isn’t something that we went out and overtly said ‘you should send kids here’.”

Since the town purchased the homestead in January, it hasn’t looked much further than a few short-term goals, which includes raising $500,000 and fixing up the buildings.

“We want to rehabilitate the buildings. Once they have been rehabilitated, we’ll start using them for public purpose,” he said.

MacEachern said fundraising is still in its early stages, but the town has already received numerous individual donations, as well as donations in-kind, such as volunteered time and services from various businesses. The town has also had discussions with some corporate sponsors, but so far no firm figures have been announced, he said.

CBC Newsworld will be airing an interview on the fundraising initiative May 23 between 4 p.m. and 5 p.m.

E-mail reporter Kurtis Elsner at kelsner@simcoe.com