A school project that has been running for several years remains with some missing pieces.
The Broncs World Tour is a project run by Ponoka Secondary Campus (PSC) social studies teacher Ron Labrie combining research on fallen veterans with a trip to western European countries. It recognizes the local soldiers that died in the First and Second World Wars.
The students look into who each of the soldiers were, a bit about their lives, which outfit and battles they fought in and then pay a visit to their graves along with visiting significant areas where Canadian soldiers were during those conflicts.
The tour is slated for Mar. 22 to April 1 of next year.
However, there are still several names on the list that students are missing information on, something that Labrie is hoping someone may be able to help with.
“Our hope is that there is someone, anyone out there that might have some bit of information on those local names that we are missing,” said Labrie.
“By reaching out to the public, we hope to be able to find out about them and add them to our list. With it being this time of the year and people looking back and remembering, maybe they recognize a name and can provide something, as even the smallest piece of information could lead us to figuring out who they are and what happened to them.”
The project is missing information on 13 soldiers: G. Armstrong, S. Bascombe, Clifford H. Clayton, Francis Clayton, O. Davis, W. Grant, Jack Jones, W. Jones, J. Murray, W. Murray, L. Morrow, L. Watt (all from WWI) and Ernie Meyers (WWII).
“It’s also significant for our 31 kids involved in the project, a lot of them who are in Grade 12.”
Getting that information would also help with a project that PSC and Labrie have been involved with for the past couple of years.
PSC is one of three Alberta schools participating in The World Remembers project, which recognizes the names of soldiers who died in World War One through a unique display that runs for 38 days.
“This year is also really significant as this is the 100th anniversary of the battle for Vimy Ridge. With that, the sheer volume of the numbers scrolling by every day since we started on Sept. 29, this year is utterly amazing,” he added.
The project started in 2014, to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the Great War, with the names of those from 1914 and will run each year until 2018 with the names of each solider who died and their country. Canadian names appear in the centre of the screen that scrolls for about 10 hours each day as well as on a dedicated website. A total of 12 countries are represented in the project with this year featuring the names of close to by the close to 598,000 soldiers.
This year is extra special for Ponoka with five local names being part of the memorial project — James Carey Pike, William Dearden, Elmer Skinner, Phillip Thomas and Edward Henry Brophy.
For more about The World Remembers project, head to www.theworldremembers.org.