While honouring veterans and remembering their sacrifices at the Remembrance Day banquet at the Legion Hall in Kamsack on November 11, members and guests reflected on the trip to Europe made by Kamsack cadets last year, were informed of another trip planned in 2017, were told about the monument being placed in memory of the HMCS Kamsack and applauded the branch’s Legionnaire of the Year.
The Kamsack branch of the Royal Canadian Legion hosted its annual roast beef banquet at 6 p.m. on Remembrance Day.
As emcee, Norman Larson began the evening with a request for the singing of Happy Birthday to Erla Rudd, a long-time Legion member who was born 90 years ago on November 11 and rarely does a Remembrance Day pass by without public recognition of her birthday.
Bringing greetings on behalf of the Town of Kamsack, Mayor Rod Gardner read a statement entitled Preparing for the 21st Century:
“It is the veteran not the preacher who has given us freedom of religion.
“It is the veteran not the reporter who has given us freedom of the press.
“It is the veteran not the poet who has given us freedom of speech.
“It is the veteran not the campus organizer who has given us freedom to assemble.
“It is the veteran not the lawyer who has given us the right to a fair trial.
“It is the veteran not the politician who has given us the right to vote.
“We have lots to be thankful for,” Gardner said, referring to veterans’ service that provides the freedoms Canadians enjoy.
“But we have to stay vigilant,” he said, referring to changes in society that are made so as not to be offensive to minorities.”
Keanna Romaniuk and Taryn Broda, who are members of the Kamsack air cadets, reviewed the 10-day trip to Europe members of the squadron had made last year to attend ceremonies marking the 70th anniversary of D-Day. A series of slides from that trip was shown and the cadets thanked the Kamsack Legion and all other supporters of the cadet program for helping them make that trip.
Romaniuk and Broda announced that the squadron in planning to make another trip to Europe in 17 months to attend the Vimy 100 service and visit London and Berlin in addition to Vimy.
“Our first fundraising event to raise the money for the trip will be a spaghetti dinner on Monday,” Broda said, before explaining that members of the squadron were moved to tears this spring when they were able to “form up” at the National War Memorial in Ottawa where Cpl. Nathan Cirillo was killed a year ago.
Jim Woodward, president of the Kamsack branch of the Legion, presented a plaque to Romaniuk and Broda which commemorates the fact that since 1959 the Legion branch has been a proud sponsor of the Kamsack air cadets.
In his presentation, Woodward reminded the audience that it was 100 years ago that John McCrae had written In Flanders Fields.
“We have had over 800 members share some time in our Legion branch,” Woodward said, encouraging persons to visit the branch’s web page and Facebook page to help mark the 90th anniversary of the Legion in 2016.
He said that the monument of HMCS Kamsack, which is being placed at Kamsack’s Cenotaph Park, will be dedicated in the spring. The monument of the ship that was commissioned in the town’s honour and served during the Second World War, comes 75 years after the ship was commissioned, he said.
“Every year on this date we remember the many sacrifices made so that we can enjoy the freedoms we take for granted,” he said. “Each wreath laid is not for one memory, it is for so many.”
Woodward recalled that 71 years ago Kamsack had been devastated by the Kamsack Cyclone and it was the military that came in “to help clean up so we could get on with our lives.
“We have many special events happening in the net few years and I wish everyone the good health to be able to celebrate with us. These dates are not just the Legion’s they belong to the community as a whole because we have all been touched by their significance.”
For efforts deemed “above and beyond the call of duty,” Diane Smutt, the branch’s second vice-president, announced that Norma Woodward is the branch’s 2015 Legionnaire of the Year.
In the branch’s 50/50 draw, the name of Patricia Mitchell of Saskatoon was drawn as the winner of $1,250.
