Students make sure no stone is left alone

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 04/11/2023 (715 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Hundreds of Brandon school children laid poppies of remembrance in the Fields of Honour at the city’s cemetery Friday morning, to make sure no soldier’s headstone was left out.

“Today’s event is called No Stone Left Alone,” Grade 7 student Graycen Van Meijc told the Sun.

One of his schoolmates, Jake Seens, added: “It’s to remember the soldiers who fought for our country and to thank them for their service.”

Seens and Van Meijc, students at Western Canada Hockey Academy, were among fellow students from École Harrison, Riverheights, and St. Augustine schools who all gathered at the cemetery.

They, their parents, teachers, soldiers from Shilo, and local dignitaries were front and centre for the ceremony that included wreath-laying at the Cenotaph, reading letters sent home during the two world wars, hearing the poem, “In Flanders Fields,” and laying poppies on each soldier’s headstone.

“I think I laid about six poppies,” said Grade 8 student William Mavvin. “I would place a poppy down, say the person’s name and then said thank you.”

“Proud,” is how Grade 8 student Davian Ferland said he felt. “When I put the poppy down, I said under my breath thank you and tapped the top of the stone.”

This was the 10th annual No Stone Left Alone for Brandon and is part of the nationwide initiative that was started by a young girl from Alberta named Maureen Bianchini Purvis, who was 12 years old when her mother died in 1971.

Purvis’s mother was a veteran of the Second World War and each Remembrance Day after her death, when Purvis would lay a poppy on her headstone, she noticed there were many graves that had no recognition.

When her own daughters asked why others did not get a poppy, Purvis took action.

With the blessing and encouragement of the minister of veterans affairs, Purvis created the event in 2011 and decided to get young people involved, so they could understand the sacrifices that soldiers made.

Infantry soldier Jay Hubert is a warrant officer at Shilo, and a member of Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry, who served in Afghanistan. At 45 years old, he’s been in the military for 23 years.

“We’re considered veterans, but I never considered myself a veteran. So, it was a little challenging hearing that because you have the perspective of a veteran as well as having been in certain situations being overseas and seeing the challenges that we’ve been through as an infantry soldier, so this is good community morale,” Hubert said.

Hubert wiped away a tear as he talked about friends he’s lost because of the invasion of Ukraine, and as he looked around at the school children spreading out to place the poppies, he said, “It’s nice to see this generation remember.”

“They’re the innocent. I like to see that and not have it spoiled. And it’s why a lot of soldiers do what they do. And so, when stuff’s happening, we keep it in that part of the world, as opposed to affecting those in this part of the world,” said Hubert.

Ten years ago, when Souris’s Ryan Lawson organized the Brandon event, he didn’t imagine the success it would become, “I would say we had about 700 school kids this year,” Lawson said. “I organized the first one and each one since. I didn’t think it would continue for this long, but we’ve had so many great kids and support from the Brandon School Division.”

For nine years, Brandon’s Glen Simard was one of the dozens of teachers who brought his students to the ceremony from École Harrison.

This year, he had a new perspective as MLA for Brandon East, and as minister of sport, culture, heritage, and tourism, but he said he was so proud of how all the students carried themselves.

“Really proud of them. As someone who’s not with the kids anymore, I saw how they all were just so respectful and how well they read the letters, how well they sang, how they stood there, basically giving the ceremony the respect that it deserved,” Simard said.

Robert Patryluk spent 13 years in the navy and then 17 years in the reserves and is the chair of the cemetery committee at the Brandon Branch of the Royal Canadian Legion.

He said it’s wonderful to see the younger kids learning with such interest.

“This is so so touching. And especially since they’re young and they’re so new, seeing this with fresh eyes. It’s really, really neat. I enjoyed this tremendously,” Patryluk said.

No Stone Left Alone is a non-profit organization that takes donations to help the Military Family Resource Centre in Shilo, transportation costs to take students to ceremonies of remembrance, and to the Legion Poppy Fund in Brandon.

For more information about No Stone Left Alone, or to donate, visit www.nostoneleftalone.ca .

» mmcdougall@brandonsun.com

» X: @enviromichele