Students from R.F. Staples School and St. Mary School participated in “a new way of remembering our war veterans” on Friday by placing poppies and Canadian flags on the graves of nearly 100 local residents who had served during wartime.
At noon, 18 students from R.F. Staples School walked over to the Westlock Cemetery to lay poppies and flags on 75 pre-marked graves.
Afterwards, a group of 26 students from St. Mary visited the Catholic Cemetery located along Highway 44 to lay poppies and flags on 27 graves.
Westlock Legion president/chaplain Marjorie Steele then recited a prayer that is read at the funerals of past veterans during a brief ceremony.
The idea was borrowed from Edmonton, where students have been laying poppies and flags on the graves of veterans for the past several years as part of the No Stone Left Alone initiative.
The No Stone Left Alone Foundation aims to have all Field of Honour headstones marked with a poppy, the symbol of peace and remembrance.
Royal Canadian Legion president Marjorie Steele told the assembled St. Mary and R.F. Staples students there will a live webcast this Friday, Nov. 8, of students in Edmonton laying poppies on 4,000 graves.
Steele said she knows sitting in a gymnasium and listening to Remembrance Day ceremonies doesn’t engage some students.
“No Stone Left Alone is a new way to remember our veterans,” she said. “We do this today because of what our veterans have done for us.”
Although Westlock is not yet officially part of that larger movement – they will be more involved in next year’s event - Steele took it upon herself to organize some local ceremonies.
Notably, the two cemeteries in Westlock were not the only locations where flags and poppies have been laid.
A handful of volunteers, including Steele, also travelled up to Busby later that day to mark graves with poppies. Rochester students were also taking part in their own ceremony led by former Legion president Edith Anderson.
Steele said they have also laid poppies, flags and wreaths on over 300 graves of veterans at cemeteries at Hazel Bluff, Pibroch, Linaria, Dapp, Tawatinaw, Nestow and Dungannan.
For more information on the No Stone Left movement, visit their website at: www.nostoneleftalone.ca.
