Connect with us

Community

Central Alberta Schools taking part in “No Stone Left Alone” program for first time

Published

7 minute read

The mission of the No Stone Left Alone Foundation is to honour the sacrifice and service of Canada’s military by educating students and by placing poppies on headstones of veterans. Since it’s humble beginnings in 2011 when 120 students took part and placed poppies on 4100 headstones, the impact has grown to involve 10,000 students this year who will place poppies on almost 50,000 headstones.

The organization works closely with the Canadian Armed Forces, volunteers, students and various educators such as Alberta Education, Edmonton Public School Board, Edmonton Catholic School District and numerous other school districts across Canada. Various branches of the Legion also get involved.

At the school level, there is curriculum that’s been developed that ensures future generations are engaged and learn about the history of wars we have fought in and have foundational understanding of the sacrifices their ancestors made so that they are able to lead peaceful lives today.

Here is a list of schools and dates of ceremonies in Alberta.  Locally, Father Henri Voisin School is taking part in a ceremony on Tuesday, November 6th at Alto Reste Cemetery (3.6 km east of 30 Avenue on Highway 11).

“Our Grade 4 students are honoured to be representing the No Stone Left Alone program in Red Deer,” said Jessica Maloughney of Father Henri Voisin School.  “They have been researching our Canadian Veterans, and the vital role that our nation has played in wars throughout history. On Tuesday, they will be ready to lead a ceremony, celebrating the brave men and women who have sacrificed their lives to the cause of peace.”

As well, Ecole Mother Teresa Catholic School will be at Lakeview Cemetery (4302 – 50 Street) in Sylvan Lake on Tuesday at 1:30 pm.

Red Deer – Father Henri Voisin School
November 6, 2018 at 10:00 a.m.
Alto Reste Cemetery
3.6 km east of 30 Avenue on Highway 11

Sylvan Lake – École Mother Teresa School
November 6, 2018 at 1:30 p.m.
Lakeview Cemetery
4302 – 50 Street

Here’s a story of how it really began. (from the No Stone Left Alone website). Also scroll to bottom of story for an impactful and touching video featuring Sherry Clarke, mother of Pte. Joel Wiebe, killed in Afghanistan on June 20th, 2007.

“… As a mother lay dying from breast cancer in 1971, she had one request for her 12-year-old daughter; “PLEASE DO NOT FORGET ME ON ARMISTICE DAY.” This mother was a proud Canadian soldier, who with her husband, both served in World War 11.

So, began, that each year, this young girl would honour her mother’s wish, by taking the poppy she wore in November and placing it at the headstone of her mother’s resting place.

This young girl, grew up, married and had children. Every November they would as a family, go out amongst the thousands of headstones, in the Field of Honour at Beechmount cemetery in Edmonton. They would pause and reflect and look out from the large cenotaph that overlooked all the headstones. Her young daughter asked, “Mom, why don’t they all get a poppy?”

A movement began. The young mother took it upon herself to see if that could be done. From her outreach letters to the Minister of Veterans’ Affairs, to her contact with local educators and a friendship with a young lieutenant colonel, No Stone Left Alone placed 4948 poppies in 2011 at one cemetery. In seven years, No Stone Left Alone is in over 111 cemeteries, all provinces and two territories and has engaged thousands of students.

2018 marks the 100th Anniversary of the signing of the Armistice, a truce to end World War 1 in 1918.

A mother’s words, ring true today as in 1971, the importance, recognition and obligation to ensure that our youth understand the sacrifices, service and commitment of our military members, what they have done in the past and continue to do today.

We know and gauge our success, by the words of our Canadian children, who through a written exercise of reflection, send their letters to the President telling all of us, they didn’t really know or understand why there is Remembrance Day. Below is an excerpt from one of the “reflection letters” which affirm to us that this is a new generation and NSLA is having a huge impact on their learning, their emotions, their leadership. This is enhancing all Remembrance events…”

These following two examples are indicative of the powerful impact this program has on students:

Resting place of Edward Trooper at the NSLA event in Edmonton.

“…Dear Edward Trooper, on this day I visited your grave and your friend’s graves at Beechmount cemetery. We thank you for your caring and support, what you have done for our great home Canada! We will remember that you had died just to save our country and to think about us. You are a special soldier and I will never forget that. You will never be left alone, and you are important to Canada. Our hearts will never let go, what you have done, for us. Thank you for going to war to make our country beautiful and peaceful…” – Student from St. Mary’s school Edmonton

“…When the military Padre reads the “Prayer of Remembrance”, my silent prayer is to my mother. I tell her, to share with all the veterans of this great country, that we all remember them, we haven’t forgotten, and we never will…”  – Maureen Bianchini Purvis 12-year-old girl in 1971

 

Read more stories about our community on Todayville.com. 

 

 

President Todayville Inc., Honorary Colonel 41 Signal Regiment, Board Member Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Arts Award Foundation, Director Canadian Forces Liaison Council (Alberta) musician, photographer, former VP/GM CTV Edmonton.

Follow Author

Community

SPARC Red Deer – Caring Adult Nominations open now!

Published on

Red Deer community let’s give a round of applause to the incredible adults shaping the future of our kids. Whether they’re a coach, neighbour, teacher, mentor, instructor, or someone special, we want to know about them!

Tell us the inspiring story of how your nominee is helping kids grow up great. We will honour the first 100 local nominees for their outstanding contributions to youth development. It’s time to highlight those who consistently go above and beyond!

To nominate, visit Events (sparcreddeer.ca)

Continue Reading

Addictions

‘Harm Reduction’ is killing B.C.’s addicts. There’s got to be a better way

Published on

From the Frontier Centre for Public Policy

By Susan Martinuk 

B.C. recently decriminalized the possession of small amounts of illicit drugs. The resulting explosion of addicts using drugs in public spaces, including parks and playgrounds, recently led the province’s NDP government to attempt to backtrack on this policy

Since 2016, more than 40,000 Canadians have died from opioid drug overdoses — almost as many as died during the Second World War.
Governments, health care professionals and addiction experts all acknowledge that widespread use of opioids has created a public health crisis in Canada. Yet they agree on virtually nothing else about this crisis, including its causes, possible remedies and whether addicts should be regarded as passive victims or accountable moral agents.

Fuelled by the deadly manufactured opioid fentanyl, Canada’s national drug overdose rate stood at 19.3 people per 100,000 in 2022, a shockingly high number when compared to the European Union’s rate of just 1.8. But national statistics hide considerable geographic variation. British Columbia and Alberta together account for only a quarter of Canada’s population yet nearly half of all opioid deaths. B.C.’s 2022 death rate of 45.2/100,000 is more than double the national average, with Alberta close behind at 33.3/100,00.

In response to the drug crisis, Canada’s two western-most provinces have taken markedly divergent approaches, and in doing so have created a natural experiment with national implications.

B.C. has emphasized harm reduction, which seeks to eliminate the damaging effects of illicit drugs without actually removing them from the equation. The strategy focuses on creating access to clean drugs and includes such measures as “safe” injection sites, needle exchange programs, crack-pipe giveaways and even drug-dispensing vending machines. The approach goes so far as to distribute drugs like heroin and cocaine free of charge in the hope addicts will no longer be tempted by potentially tainted street drugs and may eventually seek help.

But safe-supply policies create many unexpected consequences. A National Post investigation found, for example, that government-supplied hydromorphone pills handed out to addicts in Vancouver are often re-sold on the street to other addicts. The sellers then use the money to purchase a street drug that provides a better high — namely, fentanyl.

Doubling down on safe supply, B.C. recently decriminalized the possession of small amounts of illicit drugs. The resulting explosion of addicts using drugs in public spaces, including parks and playgrounds, recently led the province’s NDP government to attempt to backtrack on this policy — though for now that effort has been stymied by the courts.

According to Vancouver city councillor Brian Montague, “The stats tell us that harm reduction isn’t working.” In an interview, he calls decriminalization “a disaster” and proposes a policy shift that recognizes the connection between mental illness and addiction. The province, he says, needs “massive numbers of beds in treatment facilities that deal with both addictions and long-term mental health problems (plus) access to free counselling and housing.”

In fact, Montague’s wish is coming true — one province east, in Alberta. Since the United Conservative Party was elected in 2019, Alberta has been transforming its drug addiction policy away from harm reduction and towards publicly-funded treatment and recovery efforts.

Instead of offering safe-injection sites and free drugs, Alberta is building a network of 10 therapeutic communities across the province where patients can stay for up to a year, receiving therapy and medical treatment and developing skills that will enable them to build a life outside the drug culture. All for free. The province’s first two new recovery centres opened last year in Lethbridge and Red Deer. There are currently over 29,000 addiction treatment spaces in the province.

This treatment-based strategy is in large part the work of Marshall Smith, current chief of staff to Alberta’s premier and a former addict himself, whose life story is a testament to the importance of treatment and recovery.

The sharply contrasting policies of B.C. and Alberta allow a comparison of what works and what doesn’t. A first, tentative report card on this natural experiment was produced last year in a study from Stanford University’s network on addiction policy (SNAP). Noting “a lack of policy innovation in B.C.,” where harm reduction has become the dominant policy approach, the report argues that in fact “Alberta is currently experiencing a reduction in key addiction-related harms.” But it concludes that “Canada overall, and B.C. in particular, is not yet showing the progress that the public and those impacted by drug addiction deserve.”

The report is admittedly an early analysis of these two contrasting approaches. Most of Alberta’s recovery homes are still under construction, and B.C.’s decriminalization policy is only a year old. And since the report was published, opioid death rates have inched higher in both provinces.

Still, the early returns do seem to favour Alberta’s approach. That should be regarded as good news. Society certainly has an obligation to try to help drug users. But that duty must involve more than offering addicts free drugs. Addicted people need treatment so they can kick their potentially deadly habit and go on to live healthy, meaningful lives. Dignity comes from a life of purpose and self-control, not a government-funded fix.

Susan Martinuk is a senior fellow at the Frontier Centre for Public Policy and author of the 2021 book Patients at Risk: Exposing Canada’s Health Care Crisis. A longer version of this article recently appeared at C2CJournal.ca.

Continue Reading

Trending

X