WESTLOCK — For more than a decade now, students from local schools and from across the country each year engage in what is described as personal, hands-on acts of remembrance through No Stone Left Alone ceremonies in their own communities.
On Nov. 1, students from Grade 5 at St. Mary School laid poppies at the graves of veterans at St. Mary’s Cemetery just off Highway 44 south of Westlock last Wednesday afternoon.
Westlock Legion Chaplain Marjorie Steele explained to the students why they were participating and why we should remember the veterans at this time of year on Nov 11.
She also played the Last Post for the students, who all stood in silent attention, with many also saluting along with Chaplain Steele.
“No Stone Left Alone was officially launched in 2011 to help ensure an enduring national respect and gratitude for the sacrifice of the Canadian men and women who have lost their lives in the service of peace, at home and abroad,” the official website notes.
Started by Maureen Bianchini Purvis, it has become her mission to see that one day, all of the soldiers’ headstones would have a poppy placed in their honour, with truly No Stone Left Alone.
It is a simple, and yet very meaningful tribute to those veterans, and hopefully it continues, as the students who participate come to understand and appreciate the sacrifices of our soldiers, both in war and in peacetime.
In 2022, a total of 9,778 students from 168 communities honoured 79,896 veterans in 226 No Stone Left Alone events across the country.
