The Crosses of Remembrance returned to South Delta this week as students and Rotarians continued a long tradition.
Each year, students in the South Delta Secondary Interact Club install crosses that each bear the name of a Delta veteran who died in the First and Second World Wars, the Second South African (Boer) War and Afghanistan.
Forty-one crosses were installed Monday in the field near the South Delta Recreation Centre on 56th Street.
Interact is a rapidly growing social responsibility club at SDSS with a new record high this year of 70 members from all grade levels.
Valérian Leignel, is Rotary Club of Tsawwassen's International Exchange Student and Interact member. He is studying at SDSS in a cultural and language exchange.
He participated in the Remembrance Day cross installation and compared his experience as a student in France in a small village in the North, Sailly sur la Lys, to the opportunity students have in Tsawwassen. At home, he would usually go to the war monument and listen to the Mayor's speech, today he observed that, “here, the community gets involved and all these students work together to make it happen. I think it is important for me and for all the other kids to understand that we have to continue to remember what happens during a war and after so that it never happens again.”
Interact co-presidents, Alice Pu and Mateo Mazari commented on behalf of Interact members.
“We are honoured to be able to come together with Tsawwassen Rotary every year in collaboration for setting up the crosses. We believe that the rows of crosses in Tsawwassen are a reminder for ourselves and everyone passing by that our peace, freedom, and privilege today are by virtue of immeasurable bravery and sacrifice of countless people who have served or are serving us today.”
To extend the commemoration, Pu will be taking part in the South Delta Remembrance Day as a Cadet and Mazari will join Rotary Club President Blake Cowan, in the wreath laying ceremony.
Cowan, was thrilled to see so many enthusiastic Interactors taking part.
“The reason Rotary sponsors the Interact Club at the high school is to provide opportunities to youth to develop leadership skills by participating in fun and meaningful service projects,” said Cowan. “It comes as no surprise to me that Mateo and Alice are setting a great example as leaders both in their school and the community. In fact, all the Interactors here today are the embodiment of their motto 'Service Above Self'.”
The names of the fallen soldiers that are on the crosses are:
John Christian – 2nd
Frederick Bemi – 2nd
William S. Montgomery
Walter Williams – 2nd
Stanley Smith
Neil McNiven
John P. Cameron
S.R. Montgomery
Cyril Moore
Homer E. Robinson – 2nd
Edwin E. Hutcherson
Cecil H. Weare
Arthur Mills
William McLennan
John Ross Baxter – 2nd
Lester W. Hanford
Donald Montgomery – 2nd
Hume Hilton
John E. Falk
William Lewis
Robert Kettles
Geoffrey McCallan
David Skinner – 2nd
Eric Walter Cole – 2nd
Sidney N. Rich
Robert Scott
Malcolm M Leonard
Richard Maxwell Dibsor Love – 2nd
Guy A. Taylor
Albert Earl Frederick – 2nd
Basil French
Fred A Cook
Douglas A. Wright
John Mead
Leslie McCrea – 2nd
J. W. McDowell
James Clarence Smallwood
Frederick Whitworth
Sidney Welsh
Percy Devereaux - 2nd South African War
Stephan John Stock - Afghanistan
