Schools

<< back to news listing

Remembrance Day Ceremonies across Edmonton Public Schools

Fri, 8 Nov, 2013

‌Many of our schools are hosting Remembrance Day ceremonies to honour the thousands of Canadians who fought and gave their lives for the cause of freedom, and for those who continue to serve on peacekeeping and peacemaking missions in countries around the world.

Here are some of the events taking place on Friday, November 8:

• Over 900 Vimy Ridge Academy students, community members, veterans and elementary students from Rutherford School will pay their respects at the Vimy Ridge Remembrance Day ceremony. Georg Arndt, a teacher who served as a Sergeant Major in the Canadian military, will direct the event which includes readings from students, emotional videos, an interpretive dance choreographed by the Edmonton School of Ballet, a parade to the cenotaph, a wreath-laying ceremony and a bugler from the Royal Canadian Artillery Band. All students will be dressed in formal attire and will be wearing a red poppy in remembrance.
• Delton School’s ceremony is a celebration of the achievements and sacrifices made by past and present members of the Canadian military. A large number of WWII veterans, as well as members of the air force and army (both current and retired), have been attending the ceremony for years. Students in Kindergarten to Grade 2 will be honouring the guest veterans with poppies.
• Rosslyn School will host the National Virtual Remembrance Day ceremony. The event will link thousands of students across Canada with the troops in Afghanistan live via video conference. Students will have the opportunity to ask the troops what Remembrance Day means to them.
• The No Stone Left Alone Foundation, a non-profit Alberta organization, will place poppies on the headstones of Canadian Forces soldiers buried in Canada.  Students in the Nellie McClung program from Oliver, Bannerman and Avonmore schools and the Grade 3 class at Rio Terrace will lay 4,000 poppies at the headstones of Canadian soldiers buried in Edmonton’s Beechmount Cemetery. Westmount, Mount Pleasant, Dr. Donald Massey, Westlawn, Horse Hill and Talmud Torah schools will also be at cemeteries throughout Edmonton to place poppies on the headstones and cenotaphs of Albertans who served with distinction throughout the First and Second World Wars, the Korean War and more recent world conflicts including the war in Afghanistan.
  The No Stone Left Alone Foundation is live streaming this event from Beechmount Cemetery so schools can watch online.