“It’s our duty” transcript
Transcripts Wednesday, February 24th, 2010[VO] Several hundred troops gathered on January 1st to pay their respects and offer a farewell salute for four Canadian soldiers and a journalist killed in Afghanistan just two days before.
[Clip: Carol Grantly] “Unfortunately now, we’re one of the towns, we’re not just somebody mourning, it’s our own, it’s here now.”
[Clip: Joe Bishara] “I think it’s like anything else where, you would have someone hear there’s an accident, there’s a murder, a tragic thing happened here, and you go ‘aww’. All of a sudden if it’s in your family, the shock is huge..”
[VO] On December 30th, 2009, Yarmouth, Nova Scotia suddenly felt the impact of the war in Afghanistan. Sgt. Kirk Taylor, a Yarmouth native, was killed during a bomb blast along with four other Canadians. The town of 7,500 was instantly brought together by the tragedy, all trying to do their best not only to console one another, but to find ways to honour and remember one of their own. A group of roughly 200 junior high and high school students are among the local townspeople who plan on honouring Sgt. Taylor as best as they can.
[Clip: Megan Hennigar] “Originally I decided to get involved with the Memorial Club because my friend Jennifer Rozee, who had cystic fibrosis, was in the club. And I really looked up to her and I thought it was I great eye opener and my grandfather’s were both in the war, so it only seemed like what I should do. It was just natural.”
[VO] Joe Bishara, a school teacher and son of a veteran, started the club in 1985. He strongly believed in remembering and honouring those who fought and gave their lives for Canada.
[Clip: Joe Bishara] “I really believe that everything we enjoy in this country stems from the rights and freedoms that were gained on battlefields, on land, sea and in the air, and home front, and it’s our duty to tell young people. But a lot of negative things, that I noticed about it dying away, and the sadness of veteran’s,
[Clip: Joe Bishara]” There’s an instance where a young guy took his poppy and threw it in the mud in front of veterans, the West Novi veteran’s, Dennis LeBlanc and Donald Hubbard and Joseph ‘Bubby’ LeBlanc, they wept.”
[VO] And the response he received from starting the club, not only from the public, but the students as well, was overwhelming.
[Clip: Joe Bishara] “I can still think back to, the veteran’s especially, people, families, and, what I’m so proud of is the first Memorial Club members, I never taught them, they had no idea, I just put an all-call on the PA system and things just started to grow.”
[VO] Carol Grantly has been a member of the Memorial Club Parent Support Group since 2004. Her son was a part of the Memorial Club in the early 1990s, it was then that Carol gained respect for the club.
[Clip: Carol Grantly] “Being a daughter of a veteran, a sister who’s a veteran, uncles, grandfathers, you know, all veterans, it’s nice to know that the children of today will remember them. And I think that was my biggest joy in the club was knowing that they would not be forgotten.”
[Clip: Carol Grantly] “I guess the easiest way to put it is, when you go to Veteran’s Place, and the smile on the veteran’s faces when they see the red jackets, the white t-shirts, and the look of pride in the kids that are there, I guess that’s what says it all right there. It’s what they do for one another. Not what kids do for the veteran’s and vice-versa, but what they do for each other that, to me, is the most amazing thing.”
[VO] Veteran’s like the late Gerald Amiro, stood by the club through everything.
[Clip: Joe Bishara] “Here’s one of the Veteran’s who loved the Memorial Club. He did so much for us. He made special wreaths for us every year, we still have them. They were decorated with names. That’s veteran Gerald Amiro, who was with the Calgary Highlanders, wounded and spent many, many months recovering from his wounds when he was in his jeep and it was blown up. His friends were killed and he survived.”
[VO] In 2006, the students of the Memorial Club decided it was time to do something special for the fathers of those killed in battle. They came up with the idea of creating a silver cross for these fathers to be given out annually.
[Clip: Joe Bishara] “These young people took a good look and they decided it’s time to make a change cause a fathers pain, as Alex Power, and I know the students said it, is just as great as a mothers and, I think it’s a wonderful thing that these young people can step forward and say “we’re going to do this, because we want to”
[Clip: Carol Grantly] “That these young people would consider something that memorable, I guess is the only word. That they would take their time to consider the fathers, to design the cross, and to do it by themselves.”
[VO] The club held its first Silver Cross cross ceremony in June 2006. That year the members honoured Lloyd Smith, father of Private Nathan Smith from Tatamagouche, Nova Scotia, who was killed in Afghanistan in 2002.
[Clip: student] “The silver cross you are about to receive was designed for you by us. This cross itself represents sacrifice. The three maple leafs on its top corners represent all others who sacrificed their lives for us, in war and peace. The wreath in the center is the symbol of remembrance. And the torch with its brilliant flame in the center of the wreath represents your son.”
[Clip: Lloyd Smith] “This here, to me, is something I will always cherish. I will wear this with much respect, much gratitude.”
[VO] Megan Hennigar is a former co-president of the Memorial Club.
[Clip: Megan Hennigar] “I was actually lucky enough to put the Silver Cross on Lloyd Smith, the first father who did receive the Silver Cross.”
[VO] Hennigar has remained in touch with the Smith’s since the 2006 ceremony. She says since that June, the Smith’s have expressed their appreciation for what the kids have done for them.
[Clip: Megan Hennigar] “They’re very thankful and they can’t believe that the club has done this for them. They’re very thankful. They’re like a second set of parents to me now.”
[VO] The recipients of the cross make sure to keep in touch with parent support members of the club as well.
[Clip: Carol Grantly] “We sat, well, at the dance after, and it was like we’d known each other for ever. And I mean, we’d only just met several years before, and we don’t see each other unless it’s Halifax in May. But, there’s such a connection now, because they know we won’t forget.”
[Clip: Joe Bishara] We know we have something wonderful here, because now when we call a father and say ‘Would you please accept the honour of receiving one of our Silver Crosses from the Memorial Club’, ‘I’d be honoured! I heard all about it! These are from the others, cause we’ve given seven out so far.”
[VO] But it’s not just the fathers that the club honours. The annual ceremony focuses on the mothers of those killed in Afghanistan as well.
[Clip: Joe Bishara] “We have it as part of our policy, it was part of a vote by the executive of both Yarmouth High and Maple Grove Memorial Club, make sure that the mother’s are recognized. And we have these wonderful statues that we had gotten, they’re Canadian designed, of Jesus Christ hugging a soldier, you know, welcoming him to heaven. It goes along with the song ‘Another Soldier’s Coming Home’ and we always try to make sure that they’re Christian but we’ve had no one buck this, but every mother will get that. We also give them the stained glass Canada hearts, treats, flowers, whatever.
[VO] And although she may be a Dalhousie nursing student, Hennigar plans to remain part of the club by serving on the parent’s support group. She says since she has gotten older, she’s been able to see the club in a new way.
[Clip: Megan Hennigar] “You realize when you get older that it’s an amazing thing and when you actually step back and see all the new students come in and do the ceremonies and the services all over again, how amazing it looks. And you can kind of step back and see everything happen, and see the looks on all the veteran’s and the seniors faces and even people our age. And, I don’t know there’s just something about it. It’s a good feeling.”
[Clip: Joe Bishara] “We hope to invite Kirk Taylor’s mother, it may be too soon, you never know, to our Silver Cross Ceremony, and give her a Silver Cross but post mordant, after death, to Kirk’s father. You’re dad’s not here, but on behalf of Kirk’s father, who died very young, would you accept it? But we’ll check with her first. We’ll have to check and see if that would be appropriate and she would, for sure she’s going to get some special things.”
[VO] For 25 years, the club has touched the hearts of veterans and seniors around across the country. And although Canada is losing more of its World War veterans every year, members of the Memorial Club have a new generation of veterans to honour. For STU Journalism, I’m Corinne Frost.
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Posted by Corinne Frost
on Feb 24, 2010. Filed under Transcripts.
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