Volunteers in Assiniboia have joined together to start a project which aims to never forget those who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country. “Soldiers on Centre” is an initiative where residents of Assiniboia and area can place a memorial sign in honour of veteran in their family for a donation.
“We reached out to the community and offered veteran banners for $250. They’ll be hanging on light polls around town,” explained organizer Darla Prefontaine.
Prefontaine said several people came to her with stories, pictures, and names of veterans. A local business in Assiniboia was then able to produce banners featuring the veterans on them and the group started hanging them up.
“We’re almost done installation on our Centre street,” stated Prefontaine.
More banners are expected to be hung near Assiniboia Town Hall and the community’s new Southland Co-op Centre. The banners will be up until the end of November, at which point they’ll be taken down so the Town of Assiniboia can install their Christmas decorations. A special ribbon cutting ceremony will be held on Saturday, Sept 23rd at 1pm near the town’s cenotaph with all proceeds from this fundraiser benefiting the local Legion branch.
“Some people had so much information, I was getting three pages of stories of different battles or quirky stories of things that had happened. It’s been very, very interesting,” Prefontaine noted.
Click below to hear our full interview about “Soldiers on Centre” with Darla Prefontaine.
