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(Nicole Reis/meadowlakeNOW Staff)
Veteran Banners

Meadow Lake honours veterans and first responders all year, not just on Remembrance Day

Feb 3, 2020 | 2:22 PM

In Meadow Lake every day is Remembrance Day.

George Wood, banner chair with Northern Light Masonic Lodge told meadowlakeNOW the partnership with the Royal Canadian Legion #76 and the City of Meadow Lake is what helped spearhead the banner program.

The 48 banners hang from streetlights and fly along Highway 55 between Green Lake and Meadow Lake to honour the sacrifice of past and present veterans and armed forces. Each banner carries the name and photo of a soldier local to the area.

A number commemorate veterans of the Flying Dust band, Wood said. He added if anyone in the community has a family member who served or continues to serve, they are welcome to participate in the program at a $200 cost.

The project recently marked its third anniversary and the idea for it came from a similar program in New Brunswick.

“We guaranteed them for five years where we would put them up and down every spring and fall, though after the first year, people who had them up wanted them to stay up,” Wood said. “We got permission from the city to leave them up as long as they didn’t interfere with Christmas lights.”

Dennis Baldinus, treasurer with legion branch #76 and the branch’s former president, said he feels a closeness to veterans in the community as his father also served in the Second World War as a German interpreter.

“To me, it’s not the individuals as it is the entire group of veterans. We don’t have an understanding of what these guys went through,” Baldinus said.

He said he thinks of the mental health sacrifices soldiers made as many — scarred by witnessing many traumatic and life-threatening events — returned home with PTSD. Honouring that sacrifice extends beyond Nov. 11, he said.

“Our Remembrance Days in Meadow Lake are bar-none, probably some of the best in the country as far as our population is concerned and there are still a lot of people that feel the same way,” he said.

nicole.reis@jpbg.ca

Twitter: @nicolereis7722

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