Sharing the importance of the poppy
Veteran ready to take part in St. Catharines Remembrance Day service
Dave Hagan doesn’t like to talk about war.
A career soldier with 26 years of service as part of both the British and Canadian military, he’s all too familiar with the subject.
“You’ll never forget, but you don’t have to share stories or start glorifying war,” he said while sitting in the hall of Royal Canadian Legion Branch 24 in St. Catharines. “There’s no glory in war.”
Instead, Hagan prefers to spend his time volunteering with the legion and the various community services it provides, and interacting with schoolchildren every year around Remembrance Day.
While he was a crossing guard outside Mary Ward Catholic Elementary School in Niagara Falls, Hagan developed a special connection with the students that he helped to cross the road safely every day. Once they found out he was a veteran, it wasn’t long after that Hagan was invited to speak to the students on Nov. 11.
“Remembrance Day is not about war,” he said. “It’s about paying tribute to those who paid the ultimate price for the freedoms you have, and it’s about saying thanks to those who served and continue to serve to protect the freedoms you have.”
While he no longer works as a crossing guard, the 89-year-old still goes into the school every November to speak to classrooms of students.
“I tell them why we wear a poppy and I thank them all for wearing a poppy,” he said. “I tell them, ‘It’s your way of saying thank you for your rights and freedoms.’”
That usually leads to a discussion about outlining the various rights and freedoms he’s talking about. Hagan said that he tries to find ways to speak to youths about these freedoms and make them realize how important they truly are; for example, freedom of speech or holding an assembly.
“Sometimes, I’ll ask all of the girls in the room to stand up, and they will, happily. Then, I’ll ask them to leave the room and that’s when most of them just stare at me,” he said. “I’ll tell them that in some countries, girls don’t get the opportunity to get an education. It’s just the boys who go to school.”
Hagan and his wife Edna also volunteer their time at the school during their annual Remembrance Day ceremony. When Nov. 11 falls on a weekday, it often means missing the city’s large ceremony downtown.
“I’d rather be in the school, with the students,” he said, adding that it’s great to see the new generation pay tribute.
At Mary Ward, he said, each class creates a large paper poppy and students then create their own smaller poppies. On the leaves of the small flowers, they write the names of their family members who served, and then the small poppies are affixed to the leaves of the bigger poppies. All of the large poppies are brought to the auditorium for the Remembrance Day ceremony and hung on the walls.
“They end up with a sea of poppies, and all of these people — people these children have often never met — are being remembered and honoured for their sacrifices and service,” said Hagan.
Each November, the Hagans also donate their time to support the legion’s annual poppy drive campaign.
“I couldn’t imagine myself not doing the poppy drive,” said Hagan. “It’s just so important.”
The funds from the annual campaign supports veterans and veterans’ families, and are put back into the community in ways that would benefit veterans.
The poppy drive, he said, is important because it brings the focus back to those who served. In promoting Remembrance Day, he said there’s often a big focus on the war.
“There’s a great misconception that Remembrance Day is about war. It’s not — it’s about what was done to protect our rights and (freedoms).”
While he lives in Niagara Falls, Hagan has been a member of RCL Branch 24 for 15 years. He enjoys being a member, he said, because of the good work for the community that it does.
“It’s nice to feel useful,” he said with a laugh. “At 89, it keeps from sitting around with my feet up. I’m out there, still doing things and it makes me feel useful, of value. I have to stay active — as they say, use it or lose it.”
This year, with Remembrance Day falling on a Sunday, Hagan will be at the large community ceremony in St. Catharines.
The parade starts at 10:15 a.m. at St. Catharines city hall, where people will make their way to the Memorial Park cenotaph on St. Paul Street West for a ceremony.
There will also be ceremonies Sunday in Merritton and at the Imperial Veterans Association on George Street.