Students, parents, and staff from Okotoks, Alberta, dressed in replica military uniforms, prepare for their trip to Vimy Ridge. (Patti Edgar/CBC)
In Depth
Vimy Ridge remembered
Alberta students wear replica uniforms to Vimy
Okotoks teachers, family, friends and relations join in Vimy commemoration
April 5, 2007
By: Douglas Lamb, teacher, Edison School
Lauren Hebert, left, and Chantelle d'Ail. (Patti Edgar/CBC)
For the next nine days we will be touring around London, Normandy and the D-Day beaches, Vimy and Paris. The highlight will obviously be the April 9th ceremony at Vimy Ridge with the Queen, prime minister Stephen Harper and French president Jacques Chirac.
The easiest part was finding students who wanted to come on this trip. Soon after I heard about the Return to Vimy tour and celebration last September, I held an informal information session at the school. The room was packed a half hour before I even began. There's something about Vimy and its place in our nation's history that draws people. I am very excited, and honestly a little bit proud as well to be leading my school's expedition to Vimy Ridge.
Edison School in Okotoks, Alberta is sending 45 participants ranging in age from nine to 77. They are students, ex-students, friends from other schools, parents, grandparents and staff chaperones. We're a little different than most other schools on this trip because of this age range: we invited younger students to come along provided they had a parent chaperone. There were also a number of parents that eagerly insisted on coming along anyway, creating our unique mix of participants.
Alex Rinehart, Grade 11. (Patti Edgar/CBC)
We have a handful of families with relatives who died or were wounded at Vimy. They have been perhaps the most excited of all of us in the days leading up to our departure. I can trace my own personal bloodlines to three relatives who served overseas in the First World War. One fell at Passchendaele, another was wounded in the battle for the Hindenburg Line. It's a rewarding feeling to find out that a relative of yours was part of The Great War, and these students have developed a small measure of pride as a result of their forefathers' sacrifices.
Each student was to research and complete an assignment about a soldier from the 16th Battalion, many of whom were scarcely older than the students themselves. These tributes will be placed inside the Vimy memorial time capsule as part of Monday's celebration. This assignment was an excellent way to reinforce the personal nature of this memorial to the students.
Nathan Holmquist, Grade 11. (Patti Edgar/CBC)
Besides participating in the April 9thceremony, the replica uniforms are the best possible way for students to truly experience this trip. They're an authentic colour, cut and feel, and having to sew the heavy metal buttons on by hand further enhances the experience. There's only so much that even the best teacher can get across in a classroom — a trip like this provides educational experiences unavailable through any other means.
I'm delighted in knowing that I'm part of a once-in-a-lifetime experience for these students, and hope that they remember it for the rest of their lives.
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RELATED
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CBC stories
- Last veteran of Vimy Ridge battle dies
- (March 5, 2003)
- Britain loans Canada Red Ensign carried by Canadians at Vimy Ridge
- (July 17, 2002)
- Canadian youth remember Vimy Ridge
- (April 8, 2002)
- WWI shells force evacuation of Vimy
- (April 14, 2001)
- Remains of Unknown Soldier coming home
- (Nov. 10, 2000)
- Long lost soldier put to rest at Vimy Ridge
- (June 24, 2000)
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CBC archives
- The First World War: Canada Remembers
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- Silent Newsreel: 'Canadians Capture Vimy'
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- Vimy Memorial Vigil project
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