We remember: Students lay poppies in honour of veterans

Nov 2, 2019 | 5:01 PM

One by one poppies were placed on the headstones of those who fought in the war — and with each headstone came a story about the fallen member.

Veteran Larry Gilchrist served 19 years in the reserves and watched on as approximately 100 students from Harwood Elementary, Mission Hill Elementary, and W.L. Seaton Secondary walked through the Field of Honour at Pleasant Valley Cemetery placing poppies on the headstones of fallen veterans.

Grade 7 student Kaylee Peters of Harwood Elementary was one of many who kneeled and paused in remembrance.

“I think it’s good to remember all the people who fought so hard for us and sacrificed all they had for us and for these people now and for those people back then,” she said.

Gilchrist too took part in explaining each veteran’s story to a group of elementary school students.

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“I think it’s quite inspiring,” he said while watching the students.

“They say that if you don’t remember your history, you are bound to repeat it and I think the more we remember the sacrifices and find out the hardships that these men and in later years the women also went through,” Gilchrist said.

For many students participating the experience helped bring their textbook teachings to life.

The event is in its fourth year and was created after a chance encounter between W.L Seaton Secondary School teacher Yvonne Fiala and Lawrna Myers of the Vernon and District Family History Society.

(Tiffany Goodwein/ VernonMatters Staff)

Four years ago, Myers was doing a tour of the cemetery while talking about the markers of veterans which quickly caught Fiala’s attention.

“I thought ‘Oh we got to do something with the students around that’ and so from there Lawrna talked to me about the No Stone left alone program and how we could actually create a project around that.”

The No Stone Left Alone Memorial Foundation was launched in 2011 with the aim of honouring the lives of men and women who served the country in the war.

Last year, according to their website 9,236 students took part in the program in 105 cemeteries, to honour 58,941 Canadian Armed Forces members.

by Tiffany Goodwein

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