Windsor will Remember

ByLt.-Col. David Lafreniere (Ret’d)

This year’s Remembrance Day memorial service will be a moving acknowledgement of the service and sacrifice of those who have secured freedom and peace.

A retired local business man, a First Nations singer and an ‘80s tribute rock musician are only a few of the people who have come together to organize the memorial service honouring our veterans and serving military on Nov. 11.

Organizing co-chair Michael Beale said the event had over 3,000 people last year and he expects the number to grow this year.

“The hope is that when people walk away they feel changed and feel more positive about being Canadian,” said Beale. “We have a clear mandate to bring the ceremony to life.”

Beale said people should plan to arrive at the cenotaph at City Hall Square in downtown Windsor by 10:30 a.m.

The heartbeat of Mother Earth drums will be used in a First Nations gathering song to welcome people to this year’s Remembrance Day memorial service. It will be performed by Spirit of the Four Directions Singers using traditional hand-made drums.

“It is used to bring the positive energy from the four directions to the circle of people who gather together in peace, trust and friendship,” said Theresa Sims, the groups leader.

The Spirit of the Four Directions Singers will perform the intertribal gathering song without words to respect the many nations that are gathering. The group of women singers are from different First Nations communities representing the four directions of Turtle Island. An Aboriginal term, Turtle Island represents North America.

“It is used to bring the positive energy from the four directions to the circle of people who gather together in peace, trust and friendship,” said group leader Theresa Sims.

Sims is the cultural resource coordinator for the Can-Am Indian Friendship Center. She connects First Nations, aboriginal people and the community with traditional teachings and ceremonies.

“We usually sing through seven times to represent the four colours of the human race, sky world, mother earth and the direction within our own spirit,” Sims said.

The First Nations singers all have connections to military veterans with Sims tracing her family’s line of veterans back to United Empire Loyalists at the time of the U.S. revolution and the War of 1812.  Sims grandfather served in the Great War and her father Robert Sims served as a private with the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry and was a survivor of the Dieppe raid during World War 2.

“He remembers the machine gun going off, clothes being torn off and spinning around. He had 42 bullets in him and survived,” Sims said.

The group started when women from different First Nations wanted to learn traditional lullabies. They made their own drums and made tobacco ties agreeing to collectively care for their drums.

“We use our drums to find our voice and heal our families,” Sims said.

“This ceremony is who we are as Canadians, it represents the quilt that is the fabric of our nation,” Beale said.

In addition to military units, a piper and a military band there will be seven buses bringing children from various schools to the service including a children’s choir from Bellewood Public School in Lasalle.

“The children’s voices rise in the ceremony and pull people into it,” said Beale.

Tribute band Greatest Hits Live musician Michael Kohuch makes sure that all the sound for the event comes together so the audience is drawn in and can feel the emotion of the day.

While Kohuch handles the final sound checks he said Bellewood Choir Master Scot Bastien uses music to connect people. He composes or reinterprets music that gets across the message of remembrance.

“It is really the good people at the City of Windsor that make it happen, with their team we have this down to a science,” Kohuch said.

The school choir along with other students participate in the event by dropping a poppy at the cenotaph.

“Our school system is doing a better job of fostering the need to remember. We have had to turn down schools for participating because of the number of busses,” said Beale.

The event is sponsored by the Windsor Veterans Memorial Committee and the City of Windsor. Mayor Drew Dilkens will be co-hosting the event with Beale.

Consideration to time is important to Beale who said the service will take about 55 minutes.

“There is a great deal to be done and it will be orchestrated to ensure that it is done well,” said Beale.