But he’d served in war, she thought, just like the veteran who now rested under her feet in the cemetery of Notre Dame du Mont-Carmel.
The Grade 12 student stood there for several minutes, staring down at the information etched in the stone, contemplating the life they represented.
“I was the thinking about the war,” she said, “how hard it must have been, and how glad I am that they (some) came back; and I was thinking about the rest that didn’t come home to their families.”
Richard wasn’t alone in the graveyard.
Several of her classmates at École Évangéline in Abram-Village were there as well, staring down at gravestones of their own or looking out over the Nurthumberland Strait.
This year some staff at the school and local community members decided to do something a little extra for Remembrance Day. The school had its own traditional ceremony on Tuesday afternoon but immediately after the volunteers got on a bus and headed for the graveyard.
As local legion members provided a colour party, the students stood at the graves of veterans, lit candles in their honour and held two minutes of silence.
Josée Babineau, who teaches high school social studies at École Évangéline, helped organize the ceremony and she was very pleased with the way it turned out.
“It was a very beautiful gesture, I thought … and also it was something concrete – the students could place the candle and it was more than just standing there and reading or answering to a song or a poem,” said Babineau.
“I didn’t have any problems finding volunteers; the students were very enthusiastic.”
She’s taking a group of students to Europe later this year to visit Canadian war cemeteries, she added, so this was a little taste of that trip for some of the kids.
Babineau is hoping to do this again next year at one of the other graveyards in the Evangeline region and to do them in sequence every year.
“It’s a passion. I love history. But I just don’t want the students to forget what a terrible price these veterans paid.”
@JournalPMacLean
But he’d served in war, she thought, just like the veteran who now rested under her feet in the cemetery of Notre Dame du Mont-Carmel.
The Grade 12 student stood there for several minutes, staring down at the information etched in the stone, contemplating the life they represented.
“I was the thinking about the war,” she said, “how hard it must have been, and how glad I am that they (some) came back; and I was thinking about the rest that didn’t come home to their families.”
Richard wasn’t alone in the graveyard.
Several of her classmates at École Évangéline in Abram-Village were there as well, staring down at gravestones of their own or looking out over the Nurthumberland Strait.
This year some staff at the school and local community members decided to do something a little extra for Remembrance Day. The school had its own traditional ceremony on Tuesday afternoon but immediately after the volunteers got on a bus and headed for the graveyard.
As local legion members provided a colour party, the students stood at the graves of veterans, lit candles in their honour and held two minutes of silence.
Josée Babineau, who teaches high school social studies at École Évangéline, helped organize the ceremony and she was very pleased with the way it turned out.
“It was a very beautiful gesture, I thought … and also it was something concrete – the students could place the candle and it was more than just standing there and reading or answering to a song or a poem,” said Babineau.
“I didn’t have any problems finding volunteers; the students were very enthusiastic.”
She’s taking a group of students to Europe later this year to visit Canadian war cemeteries, she added, so this was a little taste of that trip for some of the kids.
Babineau is hoping to do this again next year at one of the other graveyards in the Evangeline region and to do them in sequence every year.
“It’s a passion. I love history. But I just don’t want the students to forget what a terrible price these veterans paid.”
@JournalPMacLean
