Last year, students in grades 10 and 11 at Nantyr Shores Secondary School in Innisfil had an opportunity to take the “trip of a lifetime,” travelling to Europe for ceremonies marking the 75th anniversary of D-Day.
The students visited Italy, France, the Netherlands and Belgium, saw the sights and explored European cultures.
But as teacher Craig Froese noted, “we explain it’s not a shopping trip to Paris. It’s a historical trip.”
Most of the time was spent visiting battle sites, war memorials, and war cemeteries.
Froese provided details of the 10-day tour at the recent meeting of the Innisfil Historical Society, accompanied by three students who travelled to Europe.
“We’ve gotten a lot of support from the Innisfil Historical Society,” Froese said, including monetary support during the two years leading up to trip.
The Nantyr students not only raised funds, but were each required to research an Innisfil-area soldier, who fell in either the First or Second World War.
“We go in that person’s honour,” Froese said, the students bringing poppies and Canadian flags to set on the graves of the fallen. “That’s really, really important to us, that the kids are going for a purpose.”
One of those students was Grace Morgan.
Morgan, now in Grade 12, researched the service of her great-great-grandfather, George Robert Mowforth, who died on April 11, 1917 and was buried overseas.
“He was a British Home Child. He was brought to Canada to work on a farm,” Morgan told historical society members. “He fought at Vimy Ridge, and he died the day before the Canadians took the ridge.”
The school group located his gravesite, not far from Vimy, in a tiny cemetery containing only 200 graves.
Morgan took a rubbing of his headstone.
The students met with veterans, visited the Vimy Ridge memorial, a German bunker, the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam, the ruined monastery at Monte Cassino in Italy where four bloody offensives finally forced the Italian and German forces to pull back.
They also travelled to the beaches of Normandy, including Juno Beach where the Canadians landed on June 6, 1944, and attended the D-Day ceremonies with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and students from across Canada.
One Nantyr Shores student was chosen to speak at the ceremony on Juno Beach, a significant honour.
“It was a pretty awesome trip,” said Sydney Robinson, now in Grade 11. “It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.”
The speakers shared slides of their travels, and their culinary explorations of Europe. Bruges was memorable as “a beautiful city – lots of chocolate!” said Froese.
And the students described an emotional connection, to the memorials, the lists of names of fallen soldiers, and the rows of Canadian graves.
“Every foot of ground has Canadian blood on it,” Froese said.
The 2019 trip was the third time he has accompanied Nantyr students to Europe. In 2017, he took a group to mark the 100th Anniversary of Vimy Ridge.
“We always try to centre this around the celebrations,” Froese said, noting that the high school does have a strong connection to local veterans, and to the area's fallen soldiers, all year round.
There is a quilt on display at the high school that was created by a 95-year-old veteran now living at Lakeside Retirement residence. And the school has created 112 crosses, one for each local soldier from communities in Innisfil, Allandale, Holly, and Barrie, who died during the world wars.
The group from Nantyr Shores brought in one of the crosses, created to honour Pte. Frederick Kell, who died in the final days of the First World War and is buried at Cambrai.
Every Remembrance Day, Froese told society members, the crosses line the main hallway at Nantyr Shores, decorated with poppies.
The next meeting of the Innisfil Historical Society will take place March 21, 2 p.m. at the Knock Schoolhouse Heritage Site, 10 Sideroad and Line 9 Innisfil. The topic: Pigeon raising and racing.
