The town of Redvers is marking Remembrance Day this year with a new initiative to honour local soldiers. Special signs dedicated to veterans will share the town's history and remind the community of the importance of Remembrance Day.
Jena Cowan, assistant chief administrative officer for Redvers, said they felt Halloween and Christmas were overshadowing Remembrance Day, so they wanted to bring a project that would expand on the important day.
Previously, the town celebrated with banners provided by the Southeast Military Museum, with four in town. "We are thinking that’s not enough. So we put a call out to our residents and we were really surprised by the response. We ended up getting 22 veteran banners and they all supplied the photos for us and the information."
In total there are 26 signs up, with 29 confirmed for next year.
Cowan found it particularly interesting that many of the veterans served in the same regiment. "I just found it very interesting that a lot of them served in the same regiment. So like a very common one, I think four or five of our veterans served in their Regina Rifles, which was one of the regiments that landed on Juno Beach, so I just thought these men and their families are all still here together and they actually fought together. So I thought that was special."
The town decided to start with the visible banners as a way to draw attention to Remembrance Day. "That’s why we decided that we would start with the visual because everybody is reminded when they see something. We’ve had some decorations in the past few years. We always decorate our cenotaph, our War Memorial and have crosses and poppies kind of in our flowers. But we thought we’re going to add this one big, very obvious addition to help people get in the spirit."
Though the banners arrived later than anticipated, they will now be displayed each year from the middle of October to the middle of November.
"We decided to start a community Remembrance Day service, on the 11th, and it’s going to be outside at our cenotaph," Cowan said. "We thought it would be a little more special and just taking that time on Remembrance Day to actually go to a service. I mean, it’s a lovely day off for a lot of people, but it will only take half an hour out of our day and it would be so wonderful for our community to show up."
She noted that the reaction has been positive in the community. "We’ve been pleasantly surprised, even residents that didn’t come in to bring a veteran’s information. Some would just come in to say thank you and that they looked lovely, just in general. Said Cowan. Like, thank you for doing something for Remembrance Day. And that made us think that, you know, it is time to bring it back and make it one of our stronger traditions."
2024 has been a year of celebrating Redvers history with their Hometown History Project earlier this year. Cowan said that the projects are a great way to preserve the past while hoping to attract more community members to grow in the future.
"It’s just to make sure that Redvers doesn’t shrink away like a lot of our rural communities have been. It’s really hard to retain your residents and to grow. We have room to grow. We have a new subdivision that we still need to fill. And if we don’t do things like this, that engage our residents and catch attention, you know, that are pleasing to the eye, then we’re not going to keep our people here and we’re not going to attract anymore," said Cowan. "So in doing these things, it seems like it might be, you know, more fluff or more trivial and things that you don’t have to do, but it adds that quality of life to our community, and I think that’s important."
"I mean, everyone’s looking for a way to remember, like, especially in hometown history, a lot of people, they’re our founders of our community, are very into that. And the names of our streets are for families that were here first, but they’re starting to use these as ways to remember kind of like our memory pots," said Cowan. "But we’re doing benches in history, they can remember somebody just in their family if they like, because that is the history of the town. They were a resident here and let’s kind of put them on display and it helps remember them longer, I guess make it feel a little more special."