‘A really powerful message’: Humboldt students take part in No Stone Left Alone ceremony

A class of Grade 7 students from a school in Humboldt, Sask., are marching arm in arm with the Canadian Armed Forces on Remembrance Day.

“Having three soldiers walking down our hallway at recess time at school this morning, all the kids stopped, everybody paused. And it’s just a really powerful message,” said Robyn Moore, a Grade 7 teacher at Humboldt Public School. “And having them march them down here, the students really understand the importance of what they’re doing.”

They marched all the way to the Humboldt cemetery on Monday to take part in the No Stone Left Alone ceremony — a program Moore’s class participates in every year encouraging students to honour veterans in their own community.

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“We spend a lot of time talking about Canada’s history and our military history, and what our service men and women have accomplished. We visit our local legion museum and our local cenotaph,” Moore said.

After the ceremony, students had the chance to lay a poppy down at each gravestone after learning about the significance of that in the days leading up to the event.

“Mr. Cleveland — one of the soldiers here — he used to work at our school, so he told us that we make a big difference for this because all across Canada, people are doing this, and it’s just kind of a way to remember them,” said Mattaya Pratchler and Sloane Ruel, Grade 7 students.

Second Lt. Michael Cleveland, a former teacher at Humboldt Public School, said he jumped at the opportunity to show up for the students and share the importance of honouring Canada’s fallen soldiers.

“Coming from the community of Lake Lenore I can look at the plaques there, I see familiar names of people that came from my community. The things you see out in the world today, if not you, then who? If you want to see change, you got to show up to enable it,” Cleveland said.

Students in Saskatchewan aren’t the only ones turning gravestones red — No Stone Left Alone began in Alberta but has since grown to nine countries worldwide, teaching students the importance of remembering and making sure no gravestone is left alone on Remembrance Day.

— with files from Mackenzie Mazankowski