Waterloo students felt 'overwhelming pride' at Vimy Ridge ceremonies
‘I teared up several times. It was really emotional,’ 17-year-old Breanna Schnurr says
Attending the anniversary ceremonies at Vimy Ridge in France on Sunday filled 16-year-old Marin Taylor with "overwhelming pride."
The Waterloo Collegiate Institute student was one of about 80 students from the Waterloo Region District School Board who attended the ceremonies.
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Taylor said she has always had an interest in history and had just learned about the First World War when the opportunity to go on this trip came up.
Standing alongside 22,000 people Sunday, she felt like she was part of something bigger, she said in a phone call to CBC K-W's The Morning Edition Monday from In Flanders Fields Museum in Ypres, Belgium.
'Stunning' ceremony
For classmate Breanna Schnurr, 17, the importance of the day was not lost on her.
"I teared up several times. It was really emotional," Schnurr said, calling the ceremony "stunning."
Both Schnurr and Taylor recalled standing for the United Kingdom, Canada and France national anthems, which were sung one right after the other.
When Canada's anthem was played "and it might have just been where I was sitting, but all of the Canadian kids were standing and singing, some in English and some in French and I thought that was really important," Schnurr said. "It was amazing."
Taylor said the sun was setting over the memorial at the time.
"It was just an amazing moment, absolutely gave me goose bumps," Taylor said.
The group from WCI will continue to visit museums, a chocolate factory and will wrap up their trip in Paris before heading home.
Listen to the whole interview: