Students from across Thunder Bay are stopping in at the graves of veterans across the city to clean their headstones ahead of Remembrance Day.
“We’ve done this with the four other schools where we come to honoured the veterans who have passed away both during war and during peacetime,” explained Vice-Chair of the Senate to the 18 Thunder Bay Service Battalion, Jim Gilbert. “By cleaning their headstones and then placing poppies on their headstones as an act of remembrance during the period of remembrance.”
Normally the graves are not cleaned regularly, but the Commonwealth War Graves Commission oversees the big picture in regard to veterans’ graves.
Thunder Bay has four graveyards that contain veterans graves including St Andrews Catholic Cemetery, Riverside Cemetery, both sides of Mountain View Cemetery and St. Patrick Cemetery.
“I mean, a lot of these folks, they don’t have any family, they’re not being paid attention to at all,” said Gilbert. “We have students from various schools that come out there and actually do this.”
“So they clean the headstones off, clean the organic (growth off) and it’s really a chance to educate them. You know, what’s this name? What’s this unit? What’s this rank? We actually like challenging the students to come up with a question that we can’t answer and so far they haven’t been able to do it.”
Learning opportunity for students at St. Andrew’s Catholic Cemetery – (CJ Goater/Acadia Broadcasting)
On Thursday, grade five and six students from St. Paul Elementary were at St Andrew’s Catholic Cemetery cleaning headstones.
“We’re here to clean all the graves at the cemetery and to respect the soldiers who fought for our freedom,” Said Grade Six Student Lucy Cain. “We’ve been learning about like the soldiers and everything about Remembrance Day. I think it’s very important because it’s like respecting the soldiers and it makes me happy that I’m like doing something like paying tribute to them.”
Normally it is the grade seven and eight students from St. Paul that help out but the younger students were thrilled to be involved.
“We kind of decided to get a little bit more hands-on this year for Remembrance Day, and we were connected with Mr. Gilbert,” explained Grade Five and Six Teacher Nadine Campbell “I thought this was a great idea for them, they really like kinesthetic learning and hands-on and so this was really great.”
“We did our reading about Remembrance Day and then (Jim Gilbert) came in to give a little talk with us about it, and we created (some) art (in) class, some Remembrance Day-themed rocks that we could leave for the soldiers.”
Poppies painted on rocks by St. Paul students left on headstones they cleaned – (CJ Goater/Acadia Broadcasting)
The rocks were left on the headstones that were cleaned.
“It means a lot, we always talk about the importance of community and not just our own school community, but giving back to those who sacrificed their lives for their freedoms, for them being out here today,” explained Principal John Ianni. “These people, men and women, have sacrificed for their freedoms and what they’re able to do every day on a daily basis, and it’s just a small token of their appreciation, just giving back.”
Grade 5-6 Students from St. Paul Elementary School cleaning graves – (CJ Goater/Acadia Broadcasting)
