Legion awards students for Remembrance contest

By John Watson Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The Strathmore Legion recognized the winners of 23 student awards, Jan. 27, for creative works submitted under the theme of remembrance.

An awards ceremony was hosted at the Legion building with the public being invited to join. Awards were distributed to students for their submitted essays, poems and posters. 

“This is held all across Canada within different Legions and we are all in different zones. Our winners will go on to District – so all the Legions in our district,” said Jenny Schuman, treasurer and membership chair for the Strathmore Legion. “The posters, poems, and essays will be judged from there, and the first prize winners will go to provincials. From there, the top two prizes will go to Dominion, which is held in Ottawa. The winners from that will get to go to the National Remembrance Day ceremony in Ottawa.”

Schuman added at each level of competition, students who are awarded for their submissions receive monetary prizes, which serves as part of the incentive to make submissions. 

Each year, students in Grades 1-12 are encouraged to submit poems, essays, and posters which reflect their understanding of remembrance. 

“The participation is great, and the thing is, it is so nice to see all the parents come because most of this is done in class. The parents have never seen the posters or poems,” said Schuman. 

Anna Haynes, poppy chair with the Strathmore Legion, added participation in the contest has been growing over the last three years following students’ return to in-classroom learning. 

“It is nice to see that kids are now looking at participating a little bit more and getting out and watching others get their prizes, so hopefully that gets them to also participate in the coming year and years ahead,” said Haynes. 

The Strathmore Legion will be presenting to local students again at the beginning of the 2024-25 school year, encouraging kids to get involved. 

In the next competition season, the Legion will also be accepting digital and video presentations as qualifying categories.

“The new categories will be a little bit more of an expansion, so we will have to see how that goes, and whether it attracts more students to participate,” said Haynes.

The annual deadline for students to submit their works to the Legion is Dec. 1, so as to give students as much time from the start of their school year as possible to work on their submissions.