Bison Run School’s warm-up with a great book warming hut reaches its final stages
Posted January 14, 2026 3:43 pm.
Last Updated January 14, 2026 7:58 pm.
What started in a classroom will soon be warming people up at the forks, as for the past three months, students here at Bison Run School have been working on a new warming hut design that’s now in its final stages.
Warm up with a great book is what these talented Grade 7 students from the Bison Run School named their hut, with over 200 global submissions, professional judges, and local contributors. Warm up with a great book was one of the top six warming huts that got selected to be on the Nestaweya River Trail.
“The idea was that you’d warm up inside reading books, we’ll have a little free library inside, there’s books that’ve been published by our own students that will be in there, we have books about consent because we are working with Toba Centre, and of course books about bisons, because we are Bison Run and we are in Manitoba,” said Tytanya Fillion, a teacher librarian at Bison Run School.
“Warming hut is a really, it’s a Winnipeg experience, even though it’s been taken around the world.”
Faizah Ibrahim, a Grade 7 student and one of the brains behind the beauty, talked about her winning idea.
“My idea was a book because I literally love reading every time, so this was my first prototype, it was gonna be like this, like a shape, and there is gonna be like paper inside, so it’s like a real book,” said Ibrahim.
Althea Tarun, another Grade 7 student at Bison Run School, added, “Toba Centre is a place where, is a safe place where kids and families can visit if they are feeling unsortable or they need help or they feel unsafe.”
The Bison Run students were able to work with their communities and the Toba Run Centre to make sure the warming hut has everything that it needs.
“We worked with our school community to make sure that everyone has something that they incorporated for the warming hut and so, we got everyone to make something we knitted, that’s gonna be put up in the warming hut and we also have people sign their names on a fire places that’s gonna be in there too so yeah, it’s a very inclusive space,” said Precious Akinola, a Grade 7 student at Bison Run School.
“It’s a way bigger version than this one, but it’s going to look exactly like this when it’s done, but way bigger. For the warming hut, we also made a bunch of mini bricks with books on them with Canadian authors, who people might want to read those books,” said Solane Richardson, a Grade 7 student at Bison Run School.
At the end of the month, you’ll be able to stay warm and read a book in the Bison Run School warm-up with a great book hut, but for now, student Rex Tang, who spent 10 days building a LEGO replica of the Bison Run logo, gave CityNews a sneak peek at the finished product.
