At Pipestone Cemetery with a cold breeze at their back, Reston Grade 11 and 12 students formed a semi-circle at 11 a.m. on Nov.1 for the No Stone Left Alone (NSLA) remembrance project. They were joined by members of Pipestone community and Captain Derrick Millard of the Canadian Armed Forces.
Reston high school social studies/language arts teacher Elana Wray, and librarian Kim MacKenzie guided this large project.
Following the national anthem, each of 18 students there recited a portion of John McCrae’s “In Flanders Fields”.
Cpt. Millard led the responsive: “We Will Remember Them”. School band teacher Michelle Gervin trumpeted the Last Post followed by the silent Act of Remembrance then Reveille.
Preparation for this day began weeks ago. Students had been assigned to research the veterans buried within the four cemeteries. The graves they would visit needed to be marked ahead of time as well.
Mackenzie explains, “I had community members volunteer to come and put the flags out – over 100 flags. That was just before that storm and she wanted to get the flags in before the ground froze.” She says about 85 out of the 100 blew away in the wind, leaving just the little stick in the ground. Then a handful of students replaced the flags.
On Nov. 1, the students (along with veteran family members) attended the identified graves to lay their poppies.
Bev Barsness was paired with student Logan Flannery. Bev was a Greenlay and her father was a Second World War veteran, his father was a World War One veteran.
Logan described this visit to the grave, “I place a poppy down and have a moment to give thanks … for people who gave their life to serve their country and give everyone here a life of freedom.”
Bill Mayberry of Brandon attended and he pointed out, “My mother’s headstone is right there.” Evelyn Mayberry was Mitchell then. “She was a teletype operator in Shilo during the Second World War.”
Captain Derek Millard spoke with families and students following the ceremony. Millard was stationed most recently at CFB Shilo and now works remotely from his Reston home. He’s a logistics officer for working with the administration and human resources office located in an Ottawa office. He joined the CAF in 1990 and has been stationed in Cypress, was deployed to Afghanistan for 10 years of Canadian involvement and elsewhere in administration, “Supporting the soldiers that were deploying or on training.”
Millard sees value in the student’s NSLA project: “I think it’s fantastic. The No Stone Left Alone Foundation has been great to re-connect with the youth and educate. I think it was something we had lost, a little bit. But it also brings the communities together.”
He pointed to the quality of life that Canadian students enjoy and said it’s important for them to “remember those who paid the ultimate sacrifice and who served the country in various ways so they could have the freedoms that they have today, a choice for education…”
It was something you never, ever talked about
Throughout the country cemetery students and family members walked, stopping and conversing at headstones. Strains of conversation this phrase, “it was something you never, ever talked about,” was a recurring theme, shedding light on the significance of this day at Pipestone Cemetery.
Donna Cook of Pipestone joined a student who had researched her family’s veterans. “I think it’s fantastic.” Donna’s husband Michael’s father Phillip Cook was a serviceman. “He was in the navy, he was cook and stoker.”
Frank Hay (junior) and Luke MacKenzie were together near the stone commemorating Frank Hay (senior). “This was my mum and dad. Mum’s from Ireland. They met in London during the [second] war and were married and came back.”
On Canadian soil, leaving the war years far behind, the Hays bred Hereford cattle on their farm east of Pipestone.
“In the war, he trained, he was a mechanic. But he trained other soldiers how to drive half-tracks, part track and part rubber. He drove trucks,” says Hay.
“He never spoke, we never got a lot out of him. Stuff in England we could find out about,” says Hay, adding “But he wouldn’t talk about the field part. What he saw.”
Hay also had an uncle, Douglas Noel Hay, son of Jack and Sarah Hay of Findlay, born on Christmas Day, 1913. He enlisted in the R.C.A.F. in February 1943 as an air gunner.
“His plane crashed in a bombing run over Germany. I guess it happened quite often,” he reflects on an unfortunate accident. “They were about five miles from the base and ran out of fuel, the plane crashed and everyone was killed.”
The student entourage would visit three other cemeteries in the area: Tilston, Sinclair and Reston. This day was a significant part of the NSLA project, a movement launched in 2011 to involve youth in remembrance of Canada’s veterans through visiting and marking veterans’ graves.
MacKenzie recapped interesting moments with this project: “The kids are just blown away about what they’re finding out.”
She said a student told her that the project he thought would be boring led he and his grandfather into lengthy conversation. Mackenzie pointed out the whole idea was to create a learning experience and to connect the generation. The student replied, “‘Now it’s on us to pass this on to the next generation, isn’t it?’ I just smiled and said, ‘Mission accomplished.’”
From their research, students will present stories of local military veterans at the Reston School Remembrance Day service, Thursday afternoon. On Pipestone Proud Facebook page, veterans' histories can also be found.
