THUNDER BAY — Thunder Bay youth with Scouts Canada and their scouters paid a visit to Mountain View Cemetary on Sunday to place flags on the graves of Canadian Veterans as a way to recognize and remember those who fought for their country.
This is the third year that members from the 6th St. Thomas Scout Troop and the 16th Fort William Scout Troop visited the graves of veterans as a way to learn about the country's history.
After putting down a flag, all scout members also saluted to acknowledge and honour those who have passed.
Joy Cummings, who is with Scouts Canada, said the exercise is a good way for the youth to learn, and that it leaves an impact on the scouts every year.
“They see how young these people were that went off and fought in a war and it kind of brings it back home to them to make it very real for them,” she said.
“They also took part in, some of them, took part in colour flag services at various churches this morning. It helps them to, [have] it become, not just something that's talked about in history, but something that they realized really happened.”
Cummings said she hopes the scouts take away an appreciation for the sacrifices that were made for the country's freedom.
“It gives me a great deal of pride to see the youth that come out and to be able to bring them out and teach them about our history,” she said.
This visit was just the first event planned to honour veterans this month and Cummings said the scouts will be doing some more things leading up to Remembrance Day.
“In our individual meeting places, we will be certainly talking about it,” she said. “We as an organization, or the area, we are placing wreaths at Waverley Park, at the [Fort William Gardens], as well as on the mountain, we will be placing wreaths their for Scouts Canada.”
