Students at St. Thomas of Villanova Catholic Secondary School are already paying their respects ahead of this year’s Remembrance Day. Over 40 Grade 10 students at Villanova placed 1,000 Canadian flags on the graves of local veterans at Victoria Memorial Gardens Cemetery on Tuesday morning. This is the second year the students have placed the flags on the graves ahead of Remembrance Day. The aim of the day is to provide the students with a more meaningful connection to the sacrifice local veterans made in a number of conflicts. Paula Brownlee, a history teacher at Villanova, says the students are able to see the names on the graves and make a more personal connection. “The students want to know what makes a young person decide to go to war. And so the sacrifice, right? So now they get to see over 1,000 flags here, 1,000 people in the local area that participated. So hopefully they make a connection to our sacrifice that we had veterans from this area that participated in several conflicts, not just World War I and Afghanistan, but all conflicts.” Max Peakovic, a Grade 10 student at Villanova, says it was an eye-opening experience speaking to local veterans. “You hear all the stories from your classes, you hear from your parents, your teachers, but when you actually get to hear from someone that was in the military and actually served, it’s a different perspective because they’re saying how they’re seeing it through their eyes being first person, but every time you hear it from someone else, it’s third person. So it was very eye-opening.” Peakovic says he feels very privileged. “We’re blessed that they did it for us because if I was in that time period, I would be scared to do it... be in there be in their position and if they didn’t then we wouldn’t have the same life that we have today.” On Remembrance Day, the school will get to hear from a former Villanova student who fought in the Afghanistan War. Local municipalities will be holding Remembrance Day ceremonies, including in Windsor, Tecumseh, and LaSalle. -with files from CTV Windsor’s Bob Bellacicco
