IN REMEMBRANCE
Students from Edmonton schools participate in a No Stone Left Alone ceremony Monday at Beechmount Cemetery. The students laid poppies on more than 4,100 military graves in honour of Remembrance Day.
As Ryan Jaworsky stood before a soldier’s gravestone at Beechmount Cemetery before placing a poppy upon it, he couldn’t help but wonder about the life the soldier lived and the price that was paid for his own freedom.
“It’s a lot more surreal to be in front of the graves of people who have died for your country than to just be in the classroom and learning about it from a book,” said Jaworsky, a Grade 9 student from Riverbend Junior High School, one of hundreds of students who gathered at the cemetery Monday for the seventh annual No Stone Left Alone ceremony.
No Stone Left Alone began as a way to engage Edmonton students with the sacrifices made by men and women who served in the Canadian military both past and present by having students lay poppies on military graves for Remembrance Day.
This year, students in 18 locations around Edmonton and 59 communities across Canada joined in the tradition. Earlier, students in Poland laid poppies at graves in Krakow where 483 Commonwealth casualties of the Second World War are buried.
“Not so long ago, your peers from Poland laid poppies on the graves of those Canadians who paid the ultimate price and are resting in Poland. We are thankful to them (the service members) because they fought for your and our freedom,” said Aleksandra Kucy, representing the Polish ambassador to Canada.
Lt.- Gov. Lois Mitchell said while it is important for students to remember those who have served, it is equally important to actively preserve the peace they earned.
“Our heroes fought because they believed that everyone should be free to live free from fear and oppression,” Mitchell said.
“It’s not enough for us to simply remember them, we need to remember their vision of peace that lives on in each one of us and how we treat each other.”
Brig.-Gen. Trevor Cadieu, commander of 3rd Canadian Division, urged students to remember their history to prevent those military sacrifices from having to be repeated.
“I don’t want you, as our youth, ever to have to experience the unspeakable pain of war that many of us have faced. It is brutal, it is violent, it is sad and excruciatingly painful. Many of the troops … died too young. Many were wounded, and many have been forced to live to this day with their physical or mental injuries,” Cadieu said. “If we forget their sacrifices, we might one day, I’m concerned, take for granted that our many freedoms have come at a tremendous cost.”
Cadieu said these continued acts of Remembrance not only honour the memory of those who have served on behalf of Canada in historical conflicts, but encourage those servicemen and servicewomen who continue to serve in the Canadian Forces today.
“We know there will be other conflicts. We know that more Canadian men and women will be killed wearing the Maple Leaf on their uniform while serving abroad,” Cadieu said. “We simply don’t want to forget them.”