For the past six years, Rutland Senior Secondary in Kelowna, B.C., has been honouring Canadian soldiers both past and present a little differently.
“We really try and make an experience, rather than a ceremony,” explained teacher and organizer of the event, Sherrie Farquhar.
“We want to immerse students in the stories and the songs.”
The event saw roughly 1,900 students, staff and members of the community walk through the school’s gymnasium, which featured an Indigenous drumming circle, a performance from the school choir, band, as well as a video of the famous poem, ‘In Flanders Fields.’
“It’s not just come and experience the experience, it’s go back to the classroom, let’s reflect, let’s have a discussion, let’s talk about how we were impacted by what we saw and felt and heard,” said Farquhar.
Each year, the school also invites a refugee student from RSS to present an anonymous video to be played during the event, to talk about some of their experiences of witnessing the impacts of war. This year, a student who moved to Kelowna from Afghanistan spoke about the terror and fear she lived through while trying to flee from the Taliban.
“Seeing it as a student who’s with them in the student body really helps them understand that it’s still going on, it brings a sense of community and a sense of responsibility to students,” described Farquhar.
“The students here have really stepped up to help each other out and make one another feel welcome and safe here.”
Some of the KSS students say they enjoy how inclusive the school’s Remembrance Day ceremony is, and how it brings everyone together.
“We also have the Indigenous leadership class, and the ASL class interpreting In Flanders Fields, and I feel like it’s more inclusive and it kind of acknowledges that there were Indigenous soldiers fighting world wars and there were disabled soldiers in the wars,” said Grade 12 student Chloe Leyao.
“I like walking around, and like actually visually seeing it, you know,” described Grade 11 student Ian Peters.
“I think it’s cool that we get to pay our respects to the veterans who fought in war, and I think it’s really important to remember it.”
Some of the school’s faculty also put up pictures in the cafeteria of their relatives and of those from the Kelowna community of Rutland, who fought for Canada on display in the school’s common area for everyone to see.
“It just means that much more, to be able to see them, and pay respects to them but also to the teachers too,” said Peters.