Approximately 800 residents turned out to the Remembrance Day service hosted on Nov. 11 to remember the service of Canadian soldiers in wartime.
Although Westlock has a cenotaph located at the Westlock Municipal Library, a cenotaph is set up on stage at the Westlock and District Community Hall for the annual service. Members of the Westlock Cadet Corps stand on guard at the cenotaph.
The ceremony began as it has in other years with a March on the Colours with Legion members, Cadets and RCMP officers.
Royal Canadian Legion Branch No. 97 president and chaplain Marjorie Steele noted in her address that for the first time this year, Legion members and local students from St. Mary School, R.F. Staples School and Rochester School were able to lay poppies on the graves of 400-plus war veterans at cemeteries throughout the Westlock area.
She said this was done as part of the No Stone Left Alone initiative, which has been celebrated for the past several years in Edmonton with students laying poppies at the graves of veterans.
Steele said they do not belong to the initiative as of yet, but she indicated they will be assisted by the No Stone Left Alone group in 2014.
She said it was important to keep Remembrance Day alive for the next generation and to honour the 100,000 Canadian soldiers who were killed in the course of the First and Second World War, the Korean War, Afghanistan and Canada’s peacekeeping missions.
Following the playing of the last post by St. Mary School student Jordan Smith and two minutes of silence, there was a placing of wreaths and crosses by municipalities and community groups, as well as individuals laying a wreath in remembrance of loved ones.
All the wreaths and crosses were eventually transported to the Westlock cenotaph and ceremony following the service.
The Village of Clyde also hosted its own Remembrance Day service on Nov. 11 at the Clyde Community Hall.
