‘Never forget’: Students take part in No Stone Left Alone event in Winnipeg

Winnipeg students paid tribute to fallen soldiers during a No Stone Left Alone service on Wednesday.

Winnipeg students took a moment of their day Wednesday morning to pay tribute to those who served their country.

More than 500 Grade 6 students took part in a No Stone Left Alone ceremony at the Transcona Cemetery, placing a poppy on a gravestone in the Field of Honour.

“I’m just here to make sure we never forget the act of remembrance,” said Peter Martin, a veteran who organizes the events each year. “It’s keeping them involved and connected in a way that will make them understand a bit more who we’re honouring, who we’re remembering, and never forgetting the great sacrifices and the high cost of freedom for our country.”

Martin said taking the students out of the classroom and to the cemetery helps put the sacrifices veterans make into perspective.

“When they’re here, they can see that every single soldier was a person and a young person, sometimes a married person, somebody’s father, a brother, a sister,” he said.

“It’s about the individual who served and the family who were touched by their service. Because those who served were never the same again.”

Colleen Carswell, chair of the River East-Transcona Board of Trustees, said the annual event is powerful to observe.

“They can look back at that and say, ‘I was there, I honoured that soldier,’” she said.