One local student is excited to be going to Europe this week during the 100th celebration of the Battle of Vimy Ridge.
Cheney Legacy is a Grade 9 student at John Paul II Collegiate and a member of Royal Canadian Air Cadet Squadron No. 43.
She and a number of other local Cadets are going to memorials and a few cemeteries in France “just to learn a bit about what happened during Vimy Ridge,” she said. The main stop is the National Vimy Memorial.
The plan was to land in London first and then “follow the footsteps of the Canadian soldiers and learn a little bit of the history.”
This week marks the 100th anniversary of the start of the Battle of Vimy Ridge, a critical battle during the First World War. Canada ultimately captured Vimy Ridge in what was seen as a major military accomplishment for the country. According to government numbers some 100,000 Canadian soldiers fought there, but 10,600 suffered casualties including 3,600 deaths.
A commemorative event scheduled for the National Vimy Memorial on April 9.
Cheney got involved in air cadets because her oldest brother “really loved it, so I decided to go into it once I was old enough.”
It’s not her first time in Europe. She was involved in a trip before to Italy, Greece and Spain. That trip was organized by EF Tours, an educational tour company who are tour operators for this latest trip as well.
Her mother, Sherry Legacy, is a lieutenant with the air cadets and has made the trip to Vimy before.
“It’s so eye opening,” she said, but it also reveals “how poorly Canada does with teaching kids all of our Canadian history and how proud we should be of our soldiers and the sacrifices that have been made.”
