By Caitlin Brezinski

POLL:Creative ceremony honours Remembrance Day

Nov 6, 2014 | 5:17 AM

On Wednesday Prince Albert Collegiate Institute (PACI) held a Remembrance Day ceremony for students and special guests to attend.  Members from the legion and an RCMP representative were present.

Throughout the ceremony, various forms of art were used by students to honour the day including an interpretive dance, video and a song written and performed by a student on piano.

Sheri Andrews, one of the main organizers, said they tried to make the ceremony a unique event by getting the students more involved. 

“[It’s] important for them to take ownership over the service and make it something that’s theirs, so that they’re demonstrating how they’re remembering and honouring those who have sacrificed for our freedoms,” she said. 

Candles were lit at the beginning of the ceremony and stayed lit until the end as a reminder and symbol of soldiers’ sacrifices.  Three members from the legion spoke as well.

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Student Cole Knutson said it’s important to hold a Remembrance Day ceremony to recognize and remember sacrifices that were made.

“The students [can] learn the importance of remembering those that fought for our country,” he said.

Rod Thomson, on behalf of the board of trustees for the Saskatchewan Rivers Public School Division said the Remembrance Day ceremony is an old tradition in the school.

“600,000 young men went to war in the First World War and 60,000 of them died.  In the Second World War, there were almost a million young men and women taken out of the population and it led to a lot of social changes,” he said.

Thomson has had family members that have gone to war and said it’s a sacrifice he hopes none of the students have to undergo.

“We don’t wish that upon anybody but the sacrifice that was made has helped to make this nation what it is today,” he said.

Muriel Hamlyn, a member of the legion, has three generations in her family that have been to war.  She said it’s important for people to understand the sacrifices made by soldiers.

“They’ve all gone and risked their life for their countries,” she said.  “They left homes and families and their lives behind to go out and fight for somebody else’s freedom.”

Hamlyn said it’s important to bring the message to schools to help students learn and understand that often soldiers have not been that much older than them. 

 “We try to help, we try to show them or teach them that this is what you’ve got because of what the people before you did and so that’s why we do what we do,” she said.

Legion member Clara Wiberg’s husband was a prisoner of war during the Second World War and said she feels being a part of the legion is something she has to do.

“I have to tell people that we live in a country that is so free and we need to work to help the other people all around the world and to honour the men and women,” she said.

Wiberg said it’s important to instill in young people why this happened and help them understand that there is still war all over the world.

“One solider told me there’s still war in 84 countries around the world and people are suffering and not living in the freedom we do,” she said.  “We must teach our children that we have to do these things and to be thankful for what we have here in Canada.”

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