The Calgary Police Service Honour Guard marched about 11 kilometres around the city in memory of fallen soldiers on Sunday as they donated to the Field of Crosses project.
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Starting at the Mewata Armoury, where Calgary military members would have enlisted, they marched to Union Cemetery, where several are buried.
“You think a whole bunch of different things when you’re walking along honouring the dead,” said Sgt. Travis Juska.
“[You think] of the wars and honouring our own dead here with Calgary Police Service, about the sacrifice they made, about what it would have been like 100 years ago when they were here, about the experiences that they had while overseas fighting for us.”
Calgary police said they reflected on the sacrifices of the fallen as they visited a graveyard on Sunday, Sept. 20, 2020.
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Murray McCann, the founder of Field of Crosses — which memorializes Calgary’s fallen with 3,500 crosses every November — said the force is heavily involved in the project.
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“A lot of the Calgary police are made up of veterans who understand more than the rest of us what is being done to keep us safe,” he said.
“The CPS has supported us from the first day we started. They’re here every morning for the sunrise services [and] every evening for the sunset services for the 11 days. Not only that, they come to the breakfasts that we have for students every morning, and they sit with a veteran, and they teach the lesson that our country is free because of the military and our city is free and safe because of our Calgary police.”
The march ended at the Field of Crosses where police presented McCann with a cheque for $5,000. Juska said the fundraising goal was $1,000.
“To come in with five times that and present that to people like… Murray, who [is] so passionate about this project and who make it so much a part of their lives — it’s such a special feeling,” Juska said.