{"id":194352,"date":"2023-11-10T20:21:47","date_gmt":"2023-11-11T01:21:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/?p=194352"},"modified":"2023-11-14T08:44:31","modified_gmt":"2023-11-14T13:44:31","slug":"it-just-means-so-much-to-my-family-memorial-banners-help-locals-honour-their-loved-ones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/it-just-means-so-much-to-my-family-memorial-banners-help-locals-honour-their-loved-ones\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018It just means so much to my family\u2019 — memorial banners help locals honour their loved ones"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tantramar residents will mark Remembrance Day this Saturday with two services --\u00a0 one at Convocation Hall with a parade to the cenotaph at Sackville\u2019s Memorial Park, and a ceremony at the cenotaph in Dorchester, hosted by the IODE Shepody Chapter.<\/p>\n

But for weeks now the streets of both Sackville and Dorchester have already been honouring some of the region\u2019s veterans.<\/p>\n

A memorial banner program which started in Sackville in 2016 and expanded to Dorchester in 2019 now features 192 banners featuring photos and basic information submitted by family members.<\/p>\n

The banners are organized by Garth Zwicker and Mike Gillespie, with printing and design costs covered by family members, and installed on lightpoles done by the town of Tantramar public works staff.<\/p>\n

This September, Zwicker, Gillespie and about 25 family members attended a ceremony at the Tantramar Civic Centre to unveil 10 new banners to add to the collection.<\/p>\n

Darla MacPherson\u2019s grandfather, Russell Kaye, is featured on one of this year\u2019s newest banners. Kaye served as an engineer in World War II, volunteering when he was 33 years old. \u201cHe was making $1 a day in the woods,\u201d says MacPherson. \u201cHe had one child and my mother was on the way. So he said, I\u2019m going, because that\u2019ll be a good paycheque for my family.\u201d<\/p>\n

MacPherson\u2019s mother was born while Kaye was in basic training, and she was five years old before he returned home in 1946. As an engineer, Kaye stayed well past the end of the war to do repairs and clean up.<\/p>\n

Like many veterans Kaye didn\u2019t talk much about his experience. \u201cYou couldn\u2019t get him to tell stories,\u201d says MacPherson. But she has her grandfather\u2019s pictures and some of his letters, written to her grandmother, Margaret. \u201cHe\u2019d just say, \u2018I\u2019m doing okay, Peg. Keep sending pictures of the kids.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Darla MacPherson stands beside her grandfather\u2019s banner at the September unveiling. Photo: Erica Butler<\/p><\/div><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Kaye died when MacPherson was 16, and she tears up when asked about the chance to feature him on one of the town\u2019s banners. \u201cWhen I saw them go up, I said, I\u2019ve got to do that,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s just wonderful to honour him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dorchester resident Mike Purdy was involved with the first run of memorial banners back in 2016, and now has added a banner featuring his father Hubert Purdy to the streets of Dorchester, where he lived and served as village councillor for many years.<\/p>\n

The senior Purdy was in the Fourth Armoured Division in World War II. \u201cThey had tanks, they had trucks,\u201d says Mike Purdy, \u201cbut he was the guy that would walk alongside all of that. He didn\u2019t have a glamorous job, if there was such a thing. But he covered a lot of ground in Europe.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Mike and Lorrie Purdy stand by the banner they commissioned, which is hanging on the streets of Dorchester. Photo: Erica Butler<\/p><\/div><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Hubert Purdy was injured three times before his service came to an end and he returned home to Nova Scotia. Purdy ended up in Dorchester in the late 50\u2019s, taking a job with the Dorchester prison as a guard, and then moving to the Westmoreland Institution prison farm next door.<\/p>\n

A few years before Hubert Purdy passed away at 91, the Dorchester school asked him to be a special guest at their Remembrance Day ceremony. \u201cHe couldn\u2019t do it, emotionally,\u201d recalls Purdy. \u201cHe had some physical problems, but emotionally he just couldn\u2019t do it.\u201d So instead, Purdy and his youngest son interview the elder Purdy. \u201cThat was about the most I\u2019d ever seen him reveal,\u201d he recalls.<\/p>\n

Purdy says that every year when the banners go up, he and his family members search to find out where Hubert will be featured this time around. \u201cIt does it makes you emotional,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s been a good experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

Esther Cox could not agree more. She contacted Mike Gillespie, organizer of the Dorchester banners, to get her father Henry Cassie featured. \u201cHe was really excellent to deal with,\u201d she says. \u201cIt just all happened so quickly. It just means so much to my family.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cox\u2019s father served as an aircraft mechanic during the Second World War. \u201cDad was very, very private about his service,\u201d says Cox. \u201cI\u2019m sure you\u2019ve heard that before.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Some of the newly revealed banners in 2023. Photo: Erica Butler<\/p><\/div><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Later on, Cox learned about her father\u2019s job in the war from newspaper articles. \u201cThey would have to go salvage parts from planes that had actually crashed,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd what they didn\u2019t know was that they were walking through minefields.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI get really emotional just even thinking about it,\u201d says Cox. \u201cHe was just a kid when he enlisted.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he might have turned 18 in that same year, but at the time, he was only 17. So just a child, really, when you think about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Organizers Garth Zwicker and Mike Gillespie say the memorial banner program has just about maxed out. The town has set a limit of 150 banners for Sackville and 50 banners for Dorchester, so with room for just 8 more, it\u2019s not certain whether or not there will be another unveiling in 2024. Zwicker says there are plans afoot for a more permanent use for the memorial banners, though he won\u2019t say what\u2019s in the works.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s Remembrance Day service in Sackville will take place at Convocation Hall on the Mount Allison campus beginning at 10am, followed by a parade, which will march from Convocation Hall to the Cenotaph for the laying of wreathes and crosses.<\/p>\n

In Dorchester, the IODE Shepody Chapter has invited people to the Dorchester Cenotaph on Main Street for 10:45am on November 11.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tantramar residents will mark Remembrance Day this Saturday with two services —\u00a0 one at Convocation Hall with a parade to the cenotaph at Sackville\u2019s Memorial Park, and a ceremony at the cenotaph in Dorchester, hosted by the IODE Shepody Chapter. But for weeks now the streets of both Sackville and Dorchester have already been honouring…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":194356,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[57],"tags":[20502,32721,32722,24404,2701],"radio":[227],"origine":[274,275,277],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194352"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194352"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194352\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":194479,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194352\/revisions\/194479"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/194356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194352"},{"taxonomy":"radio","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/radio?post=194352"},{"taxonomy":"origine","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/origine?post=194352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}