Winnipeg students honour war veterans by laying poppies in Field of Honour Cemetery
400 students lay poppies for fallen soldiers in Winnipeg ahead of Remembrance Day
Hundreds of students fanned out across a Winnipeg cemetery on Monday morning, kneeled in unison and laid a poppy in the grass in front of the gravestones of fallen soldiers.
Aiden Ferguson, an 11-year-old École Regent Park student, said he was thinking of his great grandfather, who was a veteran, during the moment of silence that followed the ceremony.
"They've made our country better and if they wouldn't have done that I think I wouldn't have been here right now," said Ferguson.
The ceremony at the Field of Honour in the Transcona Cemetery was part of a national program called No Stone Left Alone, which kicked off Remembrance Week, to have students pay tribute to veterans.
More than 400 Grade 6 students from four schools in the River East Transcona School Division, Immanuel Christian School and Balmoral School took part in the ceremony.
The national program aims to make sure that all soldiers' headstones have a poppy placed there in honour of their sacrifice in the days leading up to Remembrance Day.
"It was sad but it was also nice to remember those who have fallen and those who have fought for our country and left behind a lot of families and loved ones," said 11-year-old Chloe Telenko from Arthur Day Middle School.
She said it was the first time she's ever visited a memorial for war veterans.
"I'm grateful that we have free public education and that we don't have war and bombs everywhere," said Chloe.
Transcona Legion president Cam Wortman said the visit to the cemetery is a chance to give the kids a more personal way to honour Manitoba war veterans for the sacrifices they made.
"They're the next generation coming up and they have to learn what their grandfathers, great-grandfathers went through to give us the lifestyle that we are having today," said Wortman.
Wortman said he hopes the national program, which was founded by the No Stone Left Alone Memorial Foundation, will become an annual event at all schools in Manitoba.
Wortman said the event was emotional, especially for two war veterans from the Transcona Legion that were there as part of the ceremony.
For Tyson Vouriot, a student from John W. Gunn Middle School, it was a chance to reflect on how brave the soldiers were.
"I felt a little bit sad that people sacrificed their lives just for Canada to be great, and it is," said Tyler.