Jules Xavier

Shilo Stag

The acting Commanding Officer (CO) with 2PPCLI knows all about sacrifices when he looks out on the military section at the Brandon cemetery.

Speaking during the eighth annual No Stone Left Alone event, Maj Chris Hartwick acknowledged his sacrificed plenty during his 20 years serving in the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF).

“I’ve missed all of my siblings’ weddings, and I almost missed my own wedding,” he told more than 1,000 Brandon students during the Nov. 4 event. “I missed the birth of my oldest child. I’ve made these sacrifices all as a result of serving my country. These are just some of the sacrifices I’ve made over the last two decades.”

Maj Hartwick sacrifices include three deployments: Afghanistan War 2009; teaching Ukrainian soldiers in Ukraine 2017; and spending six months in Latvia 2019.

“I’m only one example of 100,000 current serving Regular Force, Reservists and Rangers that currently serve across the Canadian Armed Forces today,” he said in front of an attentive audience which also included soldiers from 2PPCLI and 1RCHA, plus Manitoba Premier Heather Stefanson and Brandon East MLA and Military Envoy for Manitoba Len Isleifson.

“But we do this because of something that is bigger than ourselves. [We are] paying homage and giving thanks to service men and women who volunteered to serve our nation, to stand up against evil and for those who made the ultimate sacrifice while serving their country.”

Maj Hartwick acknowledged those soldiers, sailors, airmen and airwomen who served, and survived Canada’s involvement in the Great War, Second World War, Korean War, peacekeeping and, more recently up to 2014, the Afghan War, should not be forgotten as motorists on 18th Avenue drive by the military section of the cemetery.

He asked the students placing poppies at each grave to connect with the military members who are laid to rest in the cemetery.

“As you go along placing poppies on their headstones, please take note of who you are visiting. Be sure to read their name, when they were born, and when they died. Below these headstones are our heroes, regardless of the medals they wore on their chests. They were heroes for stepping forward and serving their country.

“To put their lives on the line for people they never met because they believed Canada and our way of life was worth protecting regardless of when they served or where they served.”

No Stone Left Alone organizer Ryan Lawson was happy to see a live event after the two previous were cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic. He noted some students and teachers still visited the cemetery to leave poppies at some graves, but it was not the same as the 2019 event where an record 1,000-plus students took part.

This annual event was part of the No Stone Left Alone Memorial Foundation, which is a non-profit organization to help raise funds, awareness, and support for the veterans of Canada and their families. The goal is to ensure every soldier’s headstone in fields of honour throughout the Brandon area received a poppy.

And unlike the previous occasions, students no longer cover the entire cemetery, but instead focus on the veterans section. Another change — they did not follow what the Dressing of the Graves contingent has done at the graveyard in past years, when a Canadian flag was placed at all gravesides where military are buried.

The flags and white crosses, emblazoned with a red poppy, designed previously by Riverheights School industrial arts program students, were placed by the junior high-aged students once the younger students who laid the poppies departed by bus back to school.

Maureen Bianchini-Purvis launched this initiative in 2011 in recognition of the sacrifices of Canadian service members who have lost their lives in the service of peace, at home and abroad. She was 12 when her Second World War veteran mother asked on her deathbed for her daughter to always place a poppy on her grave in memory of her and her military service. This expanded to place poppies on all of the military graves around he mother.

Locally, by incorporating the services of Ecole Harrison in 2014, and adding St. Augustine’s and Valleyview schools in 2015, along with a few soldiers from CFB Shilo, and the Royal Canadian Legion, the participants work to ensure the sacrifices made by these soldiers will be recognized by upcoming generations.

In 2014, the staff and students from École Harrison in Brandon were approached by parent Ryan Lawson after he heard of the foundation and the education it provided to the students. He recalled as a child growing up and attending school assemblies for Remembrance Day that the message of sacrifice does not resonate as much as kneeling in front of a grave marker with the name of a veteran engraved on the polished granite surface.

There’s a real experience, he said, of reading the name and perhaps other military information that soldier asked to have engraved on the tombstone above their grave. Each of the students kneeling in front of a grave marker were asked to take time to think about the person buried where they were in the cemetery.

“I remember as a kid in school, going to the gym for Remembrance Day, listening to veterans speak, but it just didn’t hit home like it did when you can actually get out to a cemetery and actually see and feel how it is our there,” he said.

In 2021, 7,702 students from 88 communities placed 67,171 poppies in 131 cemeteries.

Premier Stefanson called the placement of more than 268,000 poppies to date during No Stone Left Alone events an “incredible Canadian story.”

During her speech, the premier noticed the students bundled up against the frigid morning temperatures standing in front of her in front of Brandon’s cenotaph.

“It is heartwarming to see so many young people here,” she observed. “By paying your respects, you are learning important lessons that will last you a lifetime. As Canadians, we enjoy the freedoms we do today because of the veterans who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country. We must never forget what they did for us or abandon the values of peace, democracy and rule of law they fought for us.”

An 18-year veteran of the CAF, serving as a cook with his first posting to CFB Shilo after graduating from cooking school at CFB Borden, Bdr (Ret’d) Bob ‘Cookey’ McKinnon was thankful for the poppy left at his father Sgt (Ret’d) Donald McKinnon’s (1925-2000) grave as well as his grandfather Pte Adam McDougall’s (1901-1984) grave.

McKinnon shared a yellowing newspaper clipping of his father when he was reported wounded during the Second World War at the grave site. It reads below a photograph of the young soldier in uniform: “LCpl D.A. McKinnon, son of A.S. McKinnon, suite 4 Westminster block, who has been officially reported slightly wounded in action in France October 24, according to words received by his sister, Mrs. G. Quaye. He enlisted in 1942, trained at Woodstock, Ont., Camp Shilo and Saskatoon, and went overseas in June 1944. He enlisted with the PPCLI, but later transferred to the Ontario Regiment.”

McKinnon said he father also served in the Korean War, fought at the Battle of Kapyong, and later was a POW after being captured by the North Koreans.

“It was great to see all the kids out in the cemetery, leaving poppies at the graves,” he said. “I know my family appreciates it, as I bet other families do who can’t visit the graves because they no longer live in Brandon.”

Case in point: After seeing her father’s grave being visited by students in a photo on the Stag’s Facebook page, daughter Diane Muirhead was emotional when she wrote “My dad’s marker is in one of these pictures. This brought me to tears! So touched by the kids and this act of patriotism!”

Muirhead said her father, the late Sgt Reginal Willdey, enlisted in the Canadian Army at Camp Shilo, and served with the Canadian Army overseas in the United Kingdom and Continental Europe from 1940 to ’46.

Like McKinnon, Brian Forsyth thanked a group of students who surrounded his father’s military grave after they left a poppy, white cross and Canadian flag on a brisk fall morning a few years ago during the fifth annual event.

“Thank-you, thank-you for what you’ve done for my father,” he said while standing behind the military grave marker. “I think he would be very appreciative for what you’re doing here today.”

Forsyth had arrived at the cemetery prior to the arrival of the students and placed a memory box at the gravesite of both his parents, the framed keepsake featuring a black and white image of a young James Forsyth, who was with signals during the Second World War. It also contained his dad’s military dog tags and his pay book.

“Having this here puts a face to the grave, not just his name, as these students kneel in front of it putting down a poppy,” he said.

Forsyth’s grave visit for the students who kneeled or stood in front of his marker was more poignant because of a son’s idea to place the framed memory box that morning.

While this year’s event was not a winter-like landscape for students and soldiers, the fourth annual ceremony for more than 700 students featured more than a foot of snow on the ground covering the more than 1,200 graves, whether burial or cremations.

Brandon was the first city to hold a No Stone Left Alone ceremony in Manitoba, the ceremony is now held in every province.

For more on No Stone Left Alone visit www.nostoneleftalone.ca

Bdr (Ret’d) Bob ‘Cookey’ McKinnon was happy to see students leave a poppy on his father’s and grandfather’s graves during the eighth annual No Stone Left Alone event held in the military section of the Brandon cemetery. Soldiers from 1RCHA and 2PPCLI assisted more than 1,000 students who fanned out across the cemetery to lay a poppy at each military grave marker. This included the grave of Afghan War casualty 2PPCLI’s MCpl Timothy Wilson, where a friend cleaned the grave area and later talked with the young student who placed a poppy at his grave site. 2PPCLI A/CO Maj Chris Hartwick spoke for more than five minutes about the sacrifices of soldiers from past wars, and those who serve in the CAF today. Manitoba Premier Heather Stefanson also spoke, then laid a wreath at the Brandon cenotaph, along with representation from 2PPCLI and 1RCHA. There was plenty of interaction between soldiers from CFB Shilo and the students representing five Brandon schools among the grave markers. Photos Jules Xavier/Shilo Stag