White and black crosses on red construction paper lined the walls of James Thomson Elementary School’s gym Friday for the school’s annual Remembrance Day ceremony.
“It’s the impact of seeing the crosses,” said grade one and two teacher April Dimond. “It just gives that context of the numbers.”
Printed neatly on a line in the centre of each cross is a name of a fallen Powell River soldier. Students entered the gym to the sound of bagpipes.
Remembrance Day ceremonies were held at all elementary schools throughout School District 47. James Thomson students sang and gave presentations during the assembly.
Dimond’s class stood at the front of the assembly with students in grades five through seven to say the names of the fallen soldiers over the loudspeaker. Due to the efforts of Grant Workman, curator of Wall of Heroes website, full names of the Powell River deceased were available.
Students laid giant poppies made of red and black tissue paper at the foot of a cenotaph after the names were read.
“It’s been really great,” said Dimond. “It’s great to be honouring our local Powell River heroes.”
Dimond passed Workman’s Wall of Heroes webpage to the students to read about each of the fallen soldiers.
“I think this year we really tried to bring it home and make it relevant for the students by saying the names,” she added. “This was an important piece especially for the older kids. It was really helpful and gave the students more insight. They liked to see how old [the soldiers] were, if they had a family with children. It really connected them.”
Royal Canadian Legion Branch 164 representative Gerry Joint attended the ceremony and said that though the ceremony focused on veterans from World War I and World War II, the ceremony would help students understand the sacrifice that all Canadian soldiers have made, including in Afghanistan.
“Although they may not have parents or grandparents who are veterans, take a look at the Wall of Honour at the [Town Centre] mall,” said Joint. “We’ve lost those men recently.”
