Veterans banners are once again on display throughout Lethbridge ahead of Remembrance Day.
Organized by the Royal Canadian Legion General Stewart Branch No. 4, the banners depict Canadian military veterans.
“They will be up through to Nov. 11,” said Ray Romses, chair of the Lethbridge Salute Our Veterans Project.
“Our first aim is to engage the community in honouring our veterans of the past. The second aim is to help promote remembrance in our community.”
This year’s project has 133 banners, 53 more than last year.
They’ve been installed at places with historical military significance, like the Lethbridge and District Exhibition and Mountain View Cemetery, as well as near some high schools.
“What you know as barns on the east end of the Exhibition grounds were in fact barracks where soldiers were housed and from here soldiers went on to fight overseas,” said Paul Kingsmith, Lethbridge and District Exhibition senior manager of marketing and communications.
“To have the Royal Canadian Legion bring this banner project – which has been a beautiful addition to our city to Exhibition Way – and have it be a part of continuing that long legacy that we have had with the military means so much to us.”
“Mountain View Cemetery is a location many of our veterans have moved to, so to speak,” Romses said.
Each banner has an online writeup sharing the stories of the people depicted in the project at the Lethbridge Veterans Banners website, like Capt. George McKean.
“He was born in the United Kingdom, but immigrated to the Lethbridge area before the First World War. Joined a Canadian battalion, went overseas and won the Victoria Cross,” Romses said.
“These were very normal people like you and I, who took the call of our country and went off to conflict and served our country during times of crisis.”
Applications for next year’s banner project are already being accepted. The cutoff date is June 30.
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