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PRJH explores Remembrance Day
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Five members of the High Prairie Royal Air Cadet Squadron No. 539 performed the March of the Colours at the Remembrance Day service at Prairie River Junior High School Nov. 10. Left-right are AC Laine Roberts, AC Crean Capot, Cpl. Arianna Quinn, LAC Shawn Marcoux and Flight Cpl. Kevin Cramer.
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Mac Olsen
for South Peace News
A reflection about Canadian military service and sacrifice, as well as John McCrae’s ‘In Flanders Fields’ poem highlighted Prairie River Junior High’s Remembrance Day service.
An assembly was held in the gym Nov. 10, with the March of the Colours by five members of the Royal Air Cadet Squadron No. 539 and ‘O Canada’ opening the event.
Student Kyle Gordon explained many of those killed and wounded were not much older than some students at PRJH and some lied about their ages, being as young as 16.
“These young people’s plans for their future were as bright as ours today,” Gordon says. “They left their families, their friends, their sports and their studies to become sailors, soldiers and airmen. They knew that enlisting would put their lives at risk, but they went ahead. They were motivated by patriotism and duty. Many of them never lived to see their 21st birthday.”
Gordon also discussed the hardships of soldiers in the First World War, as many suffocated from the effects of chlorine gas, drowned in mud or died of dysentery and pneumonia. Over 600,000 went to war and 66,000 never returned.
The sacrifices continued in the Second World War, as Canadian sailors confronted the dangers of enemy submarines in the Atlantic to keep the shipping lanes open. Soldiers in the Dieppe raid suffered 900 dead and half of the airmen were shot down in bombing raids on Germany. Yet, Canadian soldiers liberated Belgium and the Netherlands from enemy occupation. Canadians also served in Hong Kong, Malaysia, Burma and other battles in the Pacific.
However, it came with a high price, as over 45,000 Canadian service men and women died in the Second World War, says Gordon.
He also discussed Canada’s participation in the Korean War and U.N. peacekeeping operations around the world, including Cyprus and the former Yugoslavia. But there’s also the current war in Afghanistan, where enemy snipers and improvised explosive devices put soldiers at risk. To date, 133 Canadian soldiers have died, he adds.
Gordon ended with a reflection about the freedoms Canadians enjoy.
“Canada, according to the United Nations, is one of the best countries in the world to live in. Our citizens are blessed with freedom, opportunity and a standard of living that is unrivalled in today’s world and without equal in history. For this, we can thank those who went to war in the cause of freedom.”
Next, student Jamie Smith discussed John McCrae, a doctor in the First World War veteran who wrote ‘In Flanders Fields’. McCrae confronted many horrors, which included seeing a young friend, Alexis Helmer, killed by a shell burst in May 1915.
Smith also talked about how the poppies influenced McCrae to write his world-famous poem.
“McCrae’s message is that the soldiers fear that in death, they will be forgotten, that their deaths will be in vain. The poppy has become a symbol of remembrance,” says Smith.
Then ‘In Flanders Fields’ was recited.
Student Arianna Quinn made a multimedia presentation about Canada’s involvement in the wars and Cheyenne Hall read the names of 27 war dead from High Prairie and the area.
The Last Post, two minutes of silence, closing words, Reveille and ‘God Save the Queen’ completed the assembly.
The Grade 9 Youth Apprenticeship Program class organized the service.
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