Rimbey’s Royal Canadian Legion and Ladies Auxiliary are in the final preparations for another year’s Remembrance Day ceremony.
“We have a basic ceremony every year,” said legion president Barbara Patey. “The people who come come every year.”
Basic or not the ceremony is a meaningful, heartfelt ceremony for those involved and the community.
“Remember. It’s not only one day a year, it should be more often,” said Patey. “I feel it’s very important we remember.”
Patey said the day and veterans should be honoured because all generations have lived with war. Younger generations have Afghanistan while older generations have lived through the First and Second World Wars and the Korean War.
The Nov. 11 ceremony will be held at the Rimbey Community Centre and begins at 10:45 a.m. It will include a colour party march in and the traditional laying of the wreaths.
Around Remembrance Day a poppy campaign takes place. “The money from the poppy campaign is given mostly to the needs of the veterans and their families,” said Patey.
Money is also given in support of the Air Cadets and a Grade 11 bursary.
For Remembrance Day a poster, poem and literacy contest is held in schools. The entries are judged locally then for the area, finally provincially. “The work that the students do here can go all the way to Dominion,” said Patey.
“It’s coming up and the kids should start thinking about what they’ll do for their poems and their artwork,” she added.
Pre –Remembrance Day services will be held throughout the community at schools and the hospital: 10 a.m. at the Outreach School, Nov. 7; 10 a.m. at the Christian school, 10:30 a.m. at Rimbey Junior Senior High School, and 2 p.m. at the hospital, Nov. 8; 10:30 a.m. at Rimbey Elementary School, Nov. 9.