Poem stands for sacrifice, strong memory

By Wendy Elliott

welliott@kentville advertiser.ca

NovaNewsNow.com

Alysha Viner was inspired to write a prize-winning poem by her late Grampy Joe, a veteran who did not talk about his war experiences.

Viner, who attends Grade 5 at Glooscap Elementary School in Canning, won top marks at the provincial level of the Royal Canadian Legion competition, and then a rare honourable mention nationally.

This was Viner’s second try. Her teacher, Anne Trueman, had her students employ their writing skills last October.

Viner says she was excited to have done so well. Recently, three local Legion members attended a school assembly to present her with $50 from the Nova Scotia/ Nunavut Command.

Retired teacher Jon Van Zoost told Alysha the competition is a way of remembering the sacrifice of war. He noted Glooscap usually sends a flood of entries. November 11, many are read at the Canning service.

Van Zoost spoke of being in Holland last month for that country’s Remembrance ceremonies and taking part in a service at Holden, where 1,300 Canadian soldiers were buried. He described the flags, the colour party and how “Grade 5 and 6 students - your age - disperse flowers at the cemetery. They stop at the end of each row of grave markers and put flowers on each grave, again and again and again.”

Van Zoost said the service was very emotional, yet wonderful to see. He added, Christmas Eve, the Dutch will return and leave a candle in a jar on every Canadian grave.

“What moved me so much was girls who came to me and said, ‘thanks for freedom.’ And it was their own idea, because their grandparents had to be in work camps or were lost. They know what it is like not to be free.

“It’s so important,” he told Alysha, “that you don’t forget your grampy and you protect our freedom as well. We’ve lost over 55 young men and women in Afghanistan.”