Students walked among the headstones at Rosedale Cemetery and placed poppies on the graves of veterans as part of a ceremony to help them better understand the concept of remembrance.
Youths from King George, St. Agnes, St. Margaret and Lindale schools joined members of the Royal Canadian Legion Branch No. 59 and military personnel from 15 Wing airbase at the cemetery on Nov. 4 for the No Stone Left Alone ceremony.
The purpose of this event — which launched in Edmonton in 2011 — is to honour the sacrifices and service of Canada’s veterans by educating students and having them place poppies on veterans’ headstones every November, according to the event website. The ceremony provides youths with an authentic experience that creates knowledge, understanding and appreciation of those who serve and of the sacrifices of Canada’s fallen.
This is the first time this event has been held in Moose Jaw.
A group of students recited In Flanders Fields, by Canadian poet and surgeon, Lt.-Col. John McCrae, near the start of the ceremony. Two minutes of silence and the Reveille were also played, making this event a mini-Remembrance Day ceremony.
St. Margaret School student Brooke Fafard walked past several headstones before she stopped in front of the headstone of Gunner Charles F. Ling, who served with the Canadian Expeditionary Force during the First World War and died on Nov. 3, 1956, at age 59. She stooped down to place a poppy at the foot of the headstone and then stood back up, pausing for a moment of silence.
“It was really, really important to come out and make a difference to put poppies to the people who fought in the war and who lost their lives just so we can have an actual free country and so we can live a good life,” said the Grade 6 student, “because there are still other places that are trying to do that.”
In school Fafard has learned there were more Canadians who died during wars than she originally thought. She also learned that since students have school off on Monday, Nov. 11, they should attend the Remembrance Day ceremony since it’s only about an hour long. It’s also critical to spend a few minutes of silence to remember those who have died.
St. Agnes School teacher Amy Davis brought her Grade 5 class to the No Stone Left Alone ceremony since the event makes Remembrance Day more real to students, she explained. Laying a poppy on a headstone forces students to stop and read out loud the names of the man or woman who served.
“They’re really acknowledging and recognizing that these are real people,” she said. “Sometimes it can be far removed from them; it’s just a holiday. Every year we wear a poppy and they don’t really understand how important it is and how it affects their everyday life.”
Attending the ceremony also provided the same benefits for Davis, since she thought it made her stop to remember the people who sacrificed so much. Davis has no family who served in the military but has many of the students in her class who do. They shared some history of those relatives who served in the past or currently do.
During the ceremony, St. Agnes School student Paiyton Dempster recited a Commitment to Remember poem. In it, she spoke about how the soldiers were young just as the students are young and how they gave freely of themselves.
“To them, we pledge amid the winds of time to carry their torch and never forget,” she added. “We will remember them.”
