No Stone Left Alone ceremony connects kids to Canada’s military past

Grades 5 and 6 students from Souris School take part in 'No Stone Left Alone' service (Source: Jonathan Filewich)

WINNIPEG -

A ‘No Stone Left Alone’ ceremony in Souris, Man. Friday helped connect youth to Canada’s military history while honouring the sacrifice of veterans lost to war.

All of the students in grades 5 and 6 from Souris School made their way to the Souris- Glenwood Cemetery to place poppies on the headstones of veterans.

“Visiting the cemetery and actively participating in this ceremony was a highly impactful learning event that allowed students to connect curriculum to relevant and meaningful real-life experiences,” said Jonathan Filewich, a teacher at the school.

While the gesture is small, the sentiment is meaningful to veterans across the country.

The initiative was officially launched back in 2011 in Edmonton by a woman whose mother was a Second World War veteran.

Every November, the woman would lay a poppy on the grave of her mother, first by herself, then with her husband and after, with her kids.

“The mother was putting a poppy on her grandmother’s grave and the little girl said, ‘Why don’t more people in the cemetery have poppies that are veterans?’ and it started a movement called the No Stone Left Alone,” said Peter Martin, a veteran with the Royal Canadian Corps of Signals.

The goal is to get young people out into the fields of honour where veterans are buried to place poppies on their headstones, leaving no stone left alone, according to Martin.

Martin is also the Manitoba coordinator for the initiative.

He has organized large events in Winnipeg but with pandemic restrictions in place, the number of ceremonies in the province this year can be counted on one hand.

“It gets the students away from the classroom where they’re reading about this, to actually looking at the gravestones, reading about the veteran, understanding what they did, how old they were, and honouring them,” Martin said.

It was Souris School’s third time participating in the ceremony.

Filewich said the school is proud to have been able to provide an authentic learning experience for his students “by recognizing those who have served, and continue to serve, our great country.”

Martin said he is organizing one more ceremony this year for a class at Brookside Cemetery on Nov. 10.