Laying a foundation to remember those lost

The International Children’s Memorial Place (ICMP) will hold its annual bricklaying ceremony in mid-August.

The annual ceremony pays homage and remembrance to the unbearable sting of losing someone close.

At the site there are dozens of loved ones memorialized on the Path of Remembrance as well as the Ever-living Forest.

The ICMP has been holding memorial ceremonies for over a decade.

The 2018 bricklaying ceremony will be held on Aug. 19 at 2 p.m.

Deadline for purchasing a In this Journal Pioneer file photo, family members Lexie, 9, and Cohen, 4, Delaney lay down an engraved brick in special memory of their grandfather during the 2017 bricklaying ceremony at the International Children’s Memorial Place.

brick has since closed. For more information on the International Children’s Memorial Place go to www.icmplace.com. Eva Rodgerson, of O’Leary, and Vance Bridges, of Summerside, show certificates honouring them for 50 and 40 years, respectively, of volunteering with the Canadian Red Cross. The two were in a group of 24 P.E.I. volunteers recently recognized for their dedication.

One of the longest-serving volunteers of the Canadian Red Cross has received two honours from the organization.

O’Leary native Eva Rodgerson, who has been involved with the organization for 50 years, was one of 24 P.E.I. volunteers recently presented with a long-service certificate.

Collectively, the volunteers represent nearly 220 years of service.

Rodgerson also received the newly-created swimming and water safety honour coin, created by the Red Cross to honour current or past instructors and

others who have contributed to its water safety program in a significant way.

Only 750 coins will be issued across Canada for the inaugural year of 2018, including four in P.E.I.. Rodgerson was the first Islander honoured with the coin, while other P.E.I. recipients will be later announced.

On July 7, most volunteers were presented with their long-service certificates by Lt.-Gov. Antoinette Perry.

Due to a conflicting commitment, Rodgerson was presented with her 50-year service pin and certificates privately in O’Leary later in the month by fellow

volunteer Vance Bridges.

Rodgerson’s involvement with the Red Cross has included leadership of summer day camps for Island children since the 1960s.

The camps have taken place each summer since being created by the Red Cross and P.E.I. government in 1946 to help reduce drowning deaths.

The success of the P.E.I. camps led to the Canadian Red Cross swimming and water safety program, which today is the largest of its kind in Canada. The program trained more than one million children, youth and adults across the country last year.