On Thursday, Rick Hansen Secondary School was among numerous local schools holding ceremonies to mark Remembrance Day, and honour the victims of wars past and present.
Eight hundred students stood up to welcome the four veterans who marched into the gymnasium. During the “Last Post,” everyone in attendance bowed their heads for the two minutes of silence.
“I heard people sniffling,” said Grade 12 student Gagan Lidhran. “Having the veterans there, made a difference.” She wished the students heard more from them.
The presentation included a speech by principal Julie Rousseau, a reading of the “Last Poem,” and “In Flanders Fields.”
A music video of George Canyon’s song “I Want You To Live,” depicted a story of two soldiers, only one returning home.
At the end, one soldier says he is there so his kids don’t have to be. “That was really touching,” Lidhran said.
Rousseau also showed a video she captured when meeting two veterans visiting the World Trade Centre Memorial. Both lost limbs from the war in Afghanistan. The crowd gasped when one of the men said he had six children.
“In that moment you saw him as a daddy,” Rousseau said. “The video added a flavour of authenticity. I wanted my students to connect, put a face to a name.”