Over the past few days, residents in the Upper Beaches neighbourhood of Toronto have noticed signs with large, painted poppies placed on the front lawns of specific homes south of Gerrard Street East and north of Kingston Road.
It’s all part of a Remembrance Day school project called A Walk to Remember brought to life by the students at Notre Dame High School on Malvern Avenue – imagined by History-Geography teacher Evan Smith.
“We’ve identified 23 homes around our school Notre Dame that had a soldier that fought in either WW1 or WW2 and didn’t return home,” said Smith.
Each of the signs displays a banner with the name of the soldier who went to war and never again saw the tree-lined, Beach-area side streets because they lost their life overseas while serving in the Armed Forces.
“When I was knocking on the doors and asking for permission to put these signs up and talking to the residents – I’m standing in the doorway where that soldier left home for the last time … that path they walked down, the sidewalk they left … it was very emotional,” Smith said.
The scanned QR code on each sign reveals information about the soldier along with archival photos and documents including in some cases, letters exchanged between family and the military.
One of the poppy signs planted in a lawn on Malvern Avenue honours Private Albert Leon Cleverdon, the eldest of five brothers who all served. Albert was the first to die, on Jan. 3, 1918. The current homeowner of what once was the Cleverdon residence, Alyssa Milot, told Global News that while she is honoured to know the history of her home, imagining a mother – in this case, Kate Cleverdon – watching all five of her sons head to war, is difficult to comprehend.
“As a mom of two boys – a three year old and a five year old – it guts me to think about that reality,” said Milot.
Milot said the poppy sign and the walking tour project prompted age-appropriate discussions with her sons.
“It was a really cool opportunity for me to teach my boys about the World Wars – especially my five-year-old who is interested and inquiring – but it’s a hard conversation to have,” she said.
Dozens of young men, all within a few blocks of each other, sent to war overseas never to return home – now remembered through an interactive history lesson which connects an entire community to the past.
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