This year’s Remembrance Day marks the 75th anniversary of the end of the Second World War, the liberation of the Netherlands and the liberation of the Canadian prisoners of war in Hong Kong.
Lethbridge’s Royal Canadian Legion General Stewart Branch officials say that on such a significant anniversary, it is important to maintain a tradition of remembrance.
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With the COVID-19 pandemic seeing another surge in Alberta, much of that tradition will be observed online.
”As of last night I can tell you, [the Lethbridge Legion is] not going to be open on [Nov. 11],” President of the General Stewart Branch No. 4 Michael Cormican said Wednesday.
“It’s just too big a risk and we would all feel so, so guilty if anyone passed away as a result, or wound up very sick in hospital.”
Poppies will be available at regular donation boxes, but youth organizations will not be out delivering those poppies as they have previously on Tag Day.
“They decided to decorate stones with poppies as well as glue poppies onto sticks for planting,” Annette Bermack with Scouts Canada explained. “And we’re going out to the military cemetery at Mountainview and will plant the poppies on Nov. 8.”
Lethbridge residents can donate to the poppy campaign through the Scouts program or the Legion website.
“New this year is the ability to donate online and by text,” Lethbridge Legion spokesperson Glenn Miller said.
Interested donors can also check out a new touch-free “tap” donation station at Shoppers Drug Mart in Park Place Mall starting Friday.
The annual literary and poster contest is back again, with a deadline set for December 1.
Remembrance Day events will be held in-person for a select few at the cenotaph, the Mountainview Cemetery and at Battery Point around Henderson Lake.
Lethbridge residents are encouraged to tune in through the Legion’s website.
Students are asked to watch the virtual ceremony and send thank-you cards through the Legion this year to veterans who are currently isolated in care facilities.
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“Anyone who is in a care home, they’ve basically been cut off from loved ones,” Miller said.
“This is one mechanism to make that connection.”
Officials say with the distance between Albertans due to the COVID-19 pandemic, these acts of remembrance and gratitude are more significant than ever.