Preparations are underway for the annual ceremony honouring the 300 veterans and service members laid to rest in the Transcona Cemetery Field of Honour. The No Stone Left Alone ceremony is set to take place on Thursday. The service will include hundreds of Grade 6 students laying poppies on the graves of Transcona veterans. Peter Martin, the Manitoba coordinator of No Stone Left Alone, said the event gets young students away from the textbooks and into the cemetery, where they can thank these veterans in person. “What I found is with No Stone Left Alone, it’s really an opportunity to bring the youth to the cemeteries, to visit graves of veterans and to actually touch the gravestone, to read the inscription [and] to understand that these are just regular folks that are doing something special for their country,” he said in an interview with Your Morning Winnipeg on Monday. This year marks Winnipeg’s 12th No Stone Left Alone ceremony. In past ceremonies, Martin said the students have shown a great amount of respect and an understanding of the importance of the service. “These are the youth that are going to carry on the remembrance tradition…They understand totally and appreciate it,” he said. “They take this very seriously.” Reaction to CFB Wainwright Martin, who has a long family history of serving Canada, said he relates to what happened at CFB Wainwright, where a deadly fire killed four members of the Canadian Armed Forces. “When you sign up for service, every day is a challenge. Every day is dangerous,” he said. “Because you’re preparing for what your mission is…So we need to appreciate that they go through a lot every day and put their life on the line preparing for whatever they have to do, wherever they’re called around the world.” The No Stone Left Alone ceremony begins at 10 a.m. at the Field of Honour. All are welcome to attend.
