The Maryfield and District Lions Club took on a project to honour war veterans from not only Maryfield, but the community of Fairlight and the surrounding area with banners hanging on the town’s street lights.
The signs are 2-feet wide and 4-feet high, with a picture of a veteran, their name, and when they served our country.
Chair of the Lions Veteran Project, and member of the Maryfield and District Lions Club, Robert Hill, says when the reveal was made, a lot of the attendees, especially the families of the vets, were impressed with what they saw.
“We had people that were walking up and down the street taking pictures of every sign and looking for their relatives,” Hill said of the reaction. “Everybody that I talked to was just amazed at the quality of the signs and how well everything looked.”
Hill says after the reveal there were some short speeches, then a PowerPoint presentation with all the vets’ pictures that are located in both communities.
35 signs were placed on streetlights in both communities Oct. 28, prior of the unveiling.
A literal community effort, Hill previously said a local welder built the metal signs, a local autobody painted them and another local business did the design and printed the signs.
He says it was absolutely worthwhile to do the project.
“It really brought home the sacrifices that were made. When you walk up and down the street and see how young some of these men and women were that served, a lot of them were only 18-years-old when they joined up…so they gave a lot of their young lives so that we could be free and have the freedoms that we do have in this country today.”
Hill says the plan for next year is to add 10 more names to the group.
The plan was to honour 70 veterans, but Hill says that is expected to grow. He’s had more families contacting him.
“I had a list of up to 92 of the 70, and then there were names that came today that weren’t on the list, so we could be over the hundred or more by the time we finish out project,” Hill said “I think it will be an ongoing project because the more people that hear about it, the more people interested in it.”
Among the dignitaries on hand for the occasion were MP for Souris-Moose Mountain Robert Kitchen, MLA for Cannington Daryl Harrison, and MLA for Moosomin Steven Bonk.
Also in attendance were a couple of veterans – one who served in the 60’s and the other who served in WWII – and some families of the war veterans honoured from Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Alberta and the surrounding area.
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