Ahead of the official ceremonies at cenotaphs across the country for Remembrance Day, students at Gorsebrook Junior High School took part in a special commemoration for fallen veterans.
This is the school’s fifth year taking part in the ceremony.
The No Stone Left Alone ceremony is held across Canada to ensure every fallen soldier is remembered. In Halifax, students place poppies on the graves of the 1,546 soldiers buried at Fort Massey Cemetery, a military cemetery.
The principal of Gorsebrook Junior High, Mark MacPhee, says the students took the time to learn about the veterans who are buried at Fort Massey and that coming to the cemetery gives students a hands-on experience.
“By coming to the cemetery, putting names and faces to the lives that were lost in hopes that they will honour the remembrance a little bit deeper through that experience. And this afternoon they will participate in a reflection activity through what they learned and felt through this experience today,” he said.
Karen Furneaux, an honorary lieutenant-colonel who works with youth and cadets, says the experience is a way for the students to reflect.
“I think it’s so important to involve youth in the conversation of freedom and helping them to think about what it has taken to get here and what it has taken to maintain the freedom in our country and around the world,” said Furneaux.
This year, there are 83 No Stone Left Alone ceremonies taking place across Canada and there are two international ceremonies taking place in Poland and the Netherlands.
“It’s part of a global movement and that global citizenship is one of the things we talk about, and allowing us to connect with those other ceremonies across Canada is really important to showing them that they’re a part of a bigger movement,” said MacPhee.