Legion members were bursting with pride as they awarded dozens of foothills youth for creatively honouring those who sacrificed for their country.
The Royal Canadian Legion Turner Valley Branch #78 handed out more than 70 awards on May 7 during its poster, poetry and essay contest, a competition that has the branch topping all others in Canada for its entries.
Gordon Day, legion past president, said the local branch reached a dominion record with 1,162 poetry, essay and poster entries. A Toronto Legion placed second with 375 entries.
“I’m amazed that 1,162 kids are thinking of veterans,” Day said. “The last seven years have had more than 1,000 entries. The number is continuously going up.”
The contest began about 30 years ago to get youth engaged in this important piece of Canadian history, said Day.
“It teaches the kids to realize how important the veteran is and the sacrifices that were made,” he said.
To spread awareness about the competition, Day visits the area’s 25 schools in September and participants have until the end of November to submit their entries. Day said 22 schools submitted entries this year.
He added the quality of the submissions is excellent with a lot of thought, detail and emotion put in the posters, essays and drawings.
Antalya Speed submitted a graphite drawing of a soldier with the reflection of a little girl in his goggles and received four awards for the image.
She placed first in the branch in the senior category for black and white poster, second in the district, and received a special legion award and an outstanding artistic production award by the Sheep Creek Arts Council in Turner Valley.
“I didn’t think I was going to get four,” said the Grade 11 Alberta High School of Fine Arts student.
Speed said this is the first year she entered the competition, a suggestion made by her art teacher, and was proud to see it on display in the Legion at last week’s awards ceremony.
“Any drawing I can do I love to do,” she said, adding she has a love for history. “It was an interesting topic.”
Wayne Roberts, past president of the Royal Canadian Legion Strathmore Branch #10, told those in attendance that a nation that forgets its history is doomed to repeat it and that’s why it’s important for Canadians, especially youth, to never forget about the sacrifices made from men and women in war and peacekeeping missions.
“That’s why programs like the Legion’s poem, essay and poster contest are so valuable,” he said. “It calls upon our young people to put into words and pictures the price that has been paid by so many throughout the years to guarantee them a bright and bountiful future. Hopefully, this will be passed on to their children so the mistakes of the past are not repeated or that the 178,000 Canadians who have paid the ultimate price for our freedom are never forgotten.”
Students who placed at the district level, which covers Nanton to Red Deer, are Vanessa McKinnon, first in junior colour poster; Ethan Balance, first in junior black and white poster; Maranda Archibald, first, and Antalya Speed, second, in senior black and white poster.
First place branch winners are:
Colour poster: Vanessa McKinnon and Holly Hardy, junior; Aden Kepford, intermediate; and Will Blackie, senior
Black and white poster: Ethan Balance, junior; Alex Uanikhehi, intermediate; Antalya Speed and Maranda Archibald, senior
Poetry: Morgan Cyr, junior; Logan Marchant and Maggie Mowser; intermediate; Angus Morgan, senior.
Essay: Mackenzie Pereira-Lambert, junior; Tyson Hartle, intermediate; Kaitlyn Thomas, senior.
A full list of winners is posted on the Royal Canadian Legion Turner Valley Branch at rcl78.com
