We pack a lot into the pages of every issue of Kayak, but there’s always more great stuff we just can’t fit in. So join Teeka and Beau, our otter mascots, to find out more about the theme of each issue, or just pick up some random bits of Canadian history.

Keep Your Family Treasures Safe

It’s hard for us to imagine what the First World War was like. Ben Cape, 14, who lives in Toronto, decided to learn more about some things that had been passed down through his family.

Last year, Ben did a Heritage Fair project at King Edward Public School (he now goes to Harbord Collegiate Institute) about Vimy Ridge because of his great-great-grandfather Lieutenant-Colonel Edmund Graves Meredith Cape.

Lieut-Col. Cape commanded an artillery (heavy guns) regiment that went to France. He fought in the terrible battles of the Somme and Vimy Ridge. Cape survived the war and gave his son the middle name “Vimy.” Another of Ben’s ancestors, Gavin Lang Ogilvie, who was known as Guy, served with the Black Watch and became a colonel.

Ben has a helmet, a French bayonet (a sword-like attachment to a rifle) and his great-great-grandfather’s journal.

Ben is definitely lucky to have these things, but how should he protect them? We asked Anne Macdonnell, a conservator — someone who keeps old items in good shape — at the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa.

She gave us a few tips to help protect artifacts like the ones Ben has:

• keep them out of the basement and the attic, where there’s more danger of temperatures and humidity going up and down, but be sure to check on them regularly
• don’t try to fix tears in old papers with tape
• if you have a journal or other papers, wrap them in tissue paper or acid-free paper, then put them in a special type of storage called an archival box. You can find it and the acid-free paper at art stores and office supply stores.
• store everything away from the light and don’t take it out for too long at any one time
• when handling metal like Ben’s helmet and bayonet, wear cotton gloves or even put a clean white T-shirt over your hands to keep oil off the metal, which can make it rust
• store a helmet upside down so the liner doesn’t start to separate
• if you have clothing, cover it with white linen or cotton muslin, store it flat (not on a hanger) and check every now and then to make sure bugs aren’t eating it

“There’s a lot you can do at home,” says Anne. “You shouldn’t have to put things on a shelf and never see them again.”

It turns out Ben is already doing the most important thing right. “I keep everything in my closet and hardly anyone touches it,” he says.