A student-led Remembrance Day ceremony was held Thursday morning at E.D. Feehan school in Saskatoon.
The event was created entirely by Grade 11 history students, including booking the speakers, writing scripts, and creating music and videos.
“It just made it extra special this year,” history 20 teacher Mark Steckler said.
He said learning about the events of the past can help students relate to present-day events.
“It doesn’t matter what year of students come through, students are really still interested and drawn into the events of the First and Second World War. Now, when we can link it to contemporary things that are happening in our world, I think it allows students a bit of understanding and can piece together events that are happening in their world by looking at things of the past.”
In the laying of the wreath ceremony, Steckler said they tried to acknowledge communities that may have been overlooked in previous Canadian Remembrance Day ceremonies.
“We had our school elder, Kookum Elizabeth, come and speak about her husband who served in the Korean War and wanted to make sure that our English and additional language students also were represented by honouring and remembering people who had died from other countries in wars and people who were victims of wars as well.”
Students noted the importance of remembering history and commemorating Remembrance Day.
“History can be forgotten pretty easily if we don’t remember it. It’s important to have a day like this where we can remember all of the sacrifices and our past relatives, family, friends and heritage can be celebrated,” Grade 11 student Aidan Sakowski said.
The ceremony paid special homage to Indigenous veterans as well.
“It’s good to reflect on everyone. Indigenous people tend to be overlooked somehow and it’s good to talk about them because they were a big part of serving for our country.”
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