The centennial of the Battle of Vimy Ridge was highlighted during the Remembrance Day program held at the Kamsack Comprehensive Institute on November 10.
Attending the program with students and staff of the KCI were students and staff of Victoria School, members of the Kamsack branch of the Royal Canadian Legion, Kamsack air cadets, RCMP officers and the Whitehawk Singers.
At the front, along with the podium and a small cenotaph where wreaths were to be laid, was a large design of the Vimy Ridge Memorial decorated with over-sized poppies.
The 100th anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge will be marked in April 2017 with special events in France and Canada, Allison Thomsen said during the program. The First World War’s Battle of Vimy Ridge was fought April 9 to 12, 1917 in northern France where the Canadian Corps won a remarkable victory over the Germans, capturing the heavily-defended ridge that the Allies had previously attempted to take.
The 2016 Veterans Week poster features the Canadian National Vimy Memorial in the foreground, Thomsen said. The beautiful and richly symbolic monument commemorates Canadians who served during the First World War. Engraved on its walls are the names of 11,285 Canadians who died in France and have no known graves.
“You will find the names of many of Kamsack’s World War One war dead on that monument,” she said. Two towering pylons sitting on a massive base represent Canada and France. The monument also incorporates 20 large stone sculptures of figures that represent ideals for which Canada fought, such as truth, justice, hope and peace.
The poster features in detail a striking statue of a woman, her chin forlornly resting on her hand as she gazes downward brooding over the graves of her valiant dead. The statue represents those who were left behind to mourn their loss.
Next year marks the 150th anniversary of Confederation, the formation of Canada as a country, she said. It is fitting the same year includes the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge, where many suggest that Canada came of age as a nation.
After all the students and guests were seated in the gymnasium, the program began with Keri Lindsay playing bagpipes as she led the Colour Party and members of the RCMP, Kamsack Legion members and cadets into the hall where Melody Lin, Tyrone Keshane, Brayden Fatteicher and Alanna Finnie presided as emcees.
The KCI band played O Canada, and then Lindsay’s Grade 3 class recited a Remembrance Day poem. Allison Thomsen talked about remembering Vimy, the band performed the Hymn of Remembrance, and then the Grade 4 classes recited In Flanders Field.
Zachary Cote read a list of First Nation veterans and then the Whitehawk Singers, with their drum, performed the Honour Song.
Laurissa Fedorchuk recited a Poem of Remembrance which she had written and then the emcees shared the duties of reading the names of the Honour Roll which contains the names of the district’s war dead from the First and Second World Wars and the Korean War.
Kyler Kitsch played The Last Post and then, after two-minutes of silence,Reveille.
Jim Woodward, president of the Kamsack Legion, recited the Act of Remembrance, and then wreaths were laid on behalf of the Legion, the Kamsack cadets, Town of Kamsack, KCI staff, Victoria School staff, First Nations community, and the KCI and Victoria schools’ students.
The program concluded with the band performing God Save the Queen.
