Military gravestones get a cleaning and a poppy
Urielle Fabian placed a poppy on the gravestone of a Second World War soldier and recited his name out loud before moving on to the next gravestone.
It was a solemn ritual, and a thoughtful moment, for the 10-year-old New Westminster girl.
“It makes me feel sad. I was thinking about the many people that died, and the sacrifice they made during the war,” said Urielle, a St. John Ambulance cadet and one of the many who gathered at the inaugural New Westminster No Stone Left Alone commemoration event on Sunday afternoon.
The initiative was started in 2011 by an Edmonton woman, Maureen Bianchini-Purvis, who wanted to have all Canadian soldiers’ headstones marked by a poppy so it resembles Flanders Fields.
Today it has grown to a national program involving close to 8,000 students, 100 cemeteries, and about 51,827 veterans who are honoured and remembered.
Karen Baker-MacGrotty heard about the initiative three weeks ago at a conference in Calgary and was inspired to bring it to New Westminster for the 450 Canadian soldiers buried in the military section at Fraser Cemetery. “I thought ‘I got to put this together.’ It’s too important.”
“The simple act of placing a poppy at the headstone of a veteran by a younger generation — it makes a huge impact on the children and their understanding of Remembrance Day,” said Baker-MacGrotty. “They tell us they experience a powerful outcome of gratitude and benefit from the event.”
Similar to Remembrance Day ceremonies across the nation, a bugler played The Last Post and two minutes’ silence was observed.
Unlike Remembrance Day, however, there was a more “personal hands-on side” to the event, said Lt.-Col. Dave Vernon of the Royal Westminster Regiment, the oldest regiment in mainland B.C., which participated in the event.
“That part where the child or the next generation kneels respectfully, places the poppy, and speaks the name of the person whose name is on the head stone, that doesn’t happen on Remembrance Day.”
In a speech, Vernon reminded attendees about the covenant formed between soldiers and civilians. “We’ll risk our lives to protect you as long as you care for our injured and remember our fallen,” he said. “This is why Remembrance Day and now this event are so important.
“We owe it to the fallen to never forget their sacrifice. We also need to remember the destructive tragedy of war and never enter into it frivolously.”
Louise Lundy, a member of the New Westminster Lions Club, was cleaning a gravestone before the ceremony.
The Lions Club has adopted two military gravestones in the cemetery as part of the Graves Program run by the Society of the Officers of the Honourable Guard, and plan to adopt two more, she said.