NORTH WELLINGTON – Each year, the Royal Canadian Legion and the Legion National Foundation work with schools and home-school families across Canada for a National Youth Remembrance Contest.
Canadian students are invited to create a piece of visual art, writing or video that honours Canada’s veterans and fosters the tradition of remembrance.
Submissions are judged and winners selected from local Legions. Those winning submissions are sent on to regional, then provincial and then national judges for successive rounds.
National winners receive cash prizes and the first place senior winners are eligible for a trip to Ottawa to represent Canada’s youth at the National Remembrance Day Ceremony.
To view national winning submissions from previous years visit lnfcanada.ca/our-work/national-youth-remembrance-contests.
The posters are black and white, Drayton Legion president Mary Miller told the Community News, and local students in kindergarten to high school participate.
Miller said she’s often particularly impressed by the submissions from Grade 7 and 8 students, and from Grade 12, as the artwork often looks as realistic as a photograph.
“Some of them are just unbelievable – they must take hours,” she said.
Winning submissions are published in the Legion catalogue and military service book, Miller said.
The theme is Remembrance, she noted, so submissions with drawings of “guys shooting at each other” aren’t the ones selected as winners.
Judges are looking for submissions that focus on remembering those who served as well as what they fought for, she said.
Miller said Dippel’s Family Garage in Drayton has envelopes with more information about the competition, and submissions can be dropped off at the garage until Nov. 10 for Miller to pick up.
She especially encouraged home-school families to participate, as students in school will have found out about the competition from their teachers.
Further information about the contest can be found at remembrancecontests.ca or by contacting a local Legion.
