Grassland School senior students were drawn to appreciate the act of remembrance when they travelled to France and Italy this past summer.
The group left June 27 for 12 days, according to teacher Natasha Gillman-Oltmanns. The group spent some time in Paris before visiting Vimy Ridge and Beaumont-Hamel, the site of a battle with one of the worst casualty rates of the four-month Battle of the Somme.
The battlefield at Beaumont-Hamel, though overgrown with vegetation, is in the same state it was left in nearly a century ago.
“It was a great learning experience for all of us,” said student Harley Kononchuk.
Gillman-Oltmanns explained the significance of Beaumont-Hamel being one of only two memorial sites outside of Canada dedicated to Canadians.
Last Wednesday, Gillman-Oltmanns explained to a gymnasium full of Grassland students, teachers and guests, including Aspen View Schools superintendent Brian LeMessurier and Boyle RCMP Sgt. Kevin McGillivray, the value her students got from the trip.
“Beaumont-Hamel is where Canadian troops saw heavy combat, especially during the Battle of the Somme. The (Royal) Newfoundland Regiment made a made a major attack on July 1, 1916,” said Gillman-Oltmanns.
“In only 30 minutes, less time than we are sitting in this gym today, nearly the entire regiment was wiped out,” she said.
A bronze statue of a caribou, the emblem of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment, stands at the site.
According to Gillman-Oltmanns, this makes July 1 for Newfoundlanders not Canada Day, but rather their own private Remembrance Day (Newfoundland did not join Canada in confederation until 1949).
“You have to understand that 733 out of the 801 Newfoundlanders were killed that day in half an hour,” she said. “Every town and village in Newfoundland lost people.
“Two of the Grassland students have family from Newfoundland and were particularly moved by this site. They even recognized some of the family names on the grave sites in the cemetery we visited there.”
LeMessurier said Aspen View School Board trustees have not been very receptive towards the prospect of student field trips overseas in the past, citing safety concerns, but that perception has started to change in recent years. The superintendent said he once heard Canadian Senator and retired Canadian Armed Forces general Roméo Dallaire insist the best way to educate students is to get them on a plane and deliver them to ground zero.
“There is no question that some of the greatest learning, and most significant learning, and most impactful learning happens outside of the four walls of our classroom,” said LeMessurier.
The superintendant then asked the students if they regarded their trip as life changing, and he received a response in the affirmative.
“Both the board and senior administration were quick to embrace and approve this trip,” said LeMessurier.
“We hear from students that have gone on trips to the battlefields of Europe that they come back more proud to be Canadian, that they understand, on the 11th of November every year, why we take time … to quietly and respectfully honour the people that have sacrificed their lives to create an environment such as the one we live in today,” said the superintendant.
The students were taken aback by the Canadian National Vimy Memorial, where they saw graves identifying the youths and men who made the ultimate sacrifice to ensure the freedom of future Canadians.
“I think the thing that touched us the most was when we found that one memorial site that was (in) Ypres, a 16- or 17-year-old boy … died there,” recalled student Chelsea Homeniuk, who went on the trip. “We couldn’t imagine being in the wars and stuff.
“The youngest kids were 16 or 17 years old. They were our age, and we were like, ‘Wow,’” said Homeniuk.
One student said it was surprising to see a whole field of white crosses “in rows and rows” representing those who died in the wars.
Student Jesse Willcott, who has a Newfoundland background, said his paternal great uncle served in the Second World War.
“It was a good trip,” said Willcott. “It was a real shock, and it took my breath away.”
“We look forward to more and more and more of these kinds of trips in the future,” said LeMessurier.
