{"id":18924,"date":"2017-11-08T16:52:50","date_gmt":"2017-11-08T21:52:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=18924"},"modified":"2017-11-08T16:52:50","modified_gmt":"2017-11-08T21:52:50","slug":"brocks-banter-the-200-club-revisited","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/brocks-banter-the-200-club-revisited\/","title":{"rendered":"BROCK’S BANTER: The 200 Club Revisited"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

I had wondered if it would lose its impact this year.
\nNew initiatives sometimes lose their lustre after the initial period of buzz, the novelty wears off, it becomes more or less \u201cwhite noise\u201d over time.
\nThese thoughts were in my mind a few days ago as I strolled from our office just south of Yonge and Wellington to a meeting a block or two away at the Aurora Public Library.
\nMunicipal employees were hard on the job, their hands working in a flurry from the top of a cherry picker as they removed the celebratory \u201cAurora\u201d banners, complete with multicoloured fireworks, from downtown lampposts, replacing them with banners depicting Canada\u2019s servicemen and service women, a tribute spearheaded by the Aurora branch of the Royal Canadian Legion as well as the Town itself.
\nSome are faces I have never seen before, often sponsored in place by families who have lost a loved one in a theatre of war, grief never dulled by the passage of time.
\nOthers have been sponsored by families extraordinarily proud of the service their grandparents, parents, siblings or gave to this country and lived to tell the tale with an equal measure of pride.
\nStill more are honoured by local companies and organizations for whom their valued employees are either recent veterans or still-serving members various branches of the Canadian Armed Forces.
\nEach banner has a story to tell, and each story packs its own unique punch.
\nAfter the initial year, however, I wondered if this would be a \u201cliving\u201d documentation of our community\u2019s association with service. As mentioned above, once programs like these are in motion for a year or two, they tend to lose traction and become static, trotted out for all too short a time, one small window in just one month, with fading glimmers of recognition.
\nI am glad to say this is not the case as the initiative has lost none of its powerful message and continues to add new faces.
\nOne particular face this year caught my attention.
\nAlthough the face of Albert Arcand graced the banner program in its inaugural year, my eyes were drawn upwards for different reasons this year.
\nA regular fixture at Aurora\u2019s various Remembrance Commemorations over the years, be it the annual Remembrance Dinner hosted each year by the Aurora Legion (this year\u2019s event was held this past Saturday) or the services at the Cenotaph, his passing earlier this year leaves a noticeable hole in the proceedings.
\nAs someone who regularly covers these events, it was always such a pleasure to speak with him.
\nHe was one of the first local veterans I wrote about when I joined The Auroran back in 2009, speaking with him at that year\u2019s Remembrance Day services as he helped a young girl place her poppy pin on the monument right after the commemorative service.
\nThe sight of this nonagenarian who had served his country so proudly interacting with so young a child for whom the very concept of war was a blessedly foreign one, moved me. It wasn\u2019t just the sight of an intergenerational exchange, but the way they seemed to have an immediate connection. Although the concept of war was still too complex for her to fully understand, her sense of gratitude was clear.
\nAnd it was palpable.
\nThe scene unfolded year in and year out with Mr. Arcand and the growing band of young admirers he encountered each year, regardless of venue.
\nEach year, at the Remembrance Dinner, I had my own little quirk. I took partiular pleasure in grabbing a photo of Mr. Arcand along with Allen Griffiths, the Legion\u2019s two eldest veterans.
\nFrom my perspective, in addition to their extraordinary service, having these two gentlemen together represented something else extraordinary to me: with each passing year zeroing on 200 years of collective experience they were able to share with the community.
\nWe finally got our shot at the 2015 dinner when Mr. Griffiths was a spry 103 and Mr. Arcand a sprightly 98.
\nAlong with Mr. Griffiths\u2019 death this past summer, that unique chapter is now closed and the number of veterans who are able to share their firsthand experiences within our community have dwindled down to a handful or two.
\nEvery time I had the occasion to speak to the family of a veteran, they always marvelled over how their father, grandfather, mother or grandmother rarely spoke at home about their wartime experience, if ever. Yet, put them in a room full of young people who are going to be the torchbearers in the next generations, these stories flowed easily and had an indelible impact.
\nBut these interactions, thanks to Father Time, are becoming increasingly rare.
\nIn recent years, the Legion has spoken of the reluctance some comparative youngsters \u2013 veterans and service personnel from recent conflicts \u2013 have in becoming actively involved with the Legion.
\nI hope the veterans of today soon recognize the need to become involved and tell their stories.
\nThere will come a day when schools will be hard-pressed to find someone to share the always timely message of \u201cNever again\u201d with the kids who can realise that dream.
\nBut that doesn\u2019t have to be the case.
\nI leave you with what I wrote this time last year when Mr. Arcand watched his banner be hoisted anove Yonge Street: <\/p>\n

Paying no attention to the chilly weather, Arcand was joined by his son Claude, daughter-in-law Brenda Braendel, and grandson Stephane, all of whom looked up to the same spot: a photo of Albert, dapper in his Canadian Army uniform, looking down at them.
\n\u201cIt is really wonderful,\u201d said Albert. \u201cI didn\u2019t expect anything like this. It is thoughtful of the Legion to organize this, but I don\u2019t know if everyone will appreciate seeing me young on the street!\u201d
\nHis family, however, are full of appreciation, having sponsored his banner.
\n\u201cMy father has always been a role model for me,\u201d says Claude. \u201cHe was a career soldier who served for over 20 years. I remember when he was away for an entire year in Laos as a child I missed him terribly, now I just want to honour him wherever I can.
\n\u201cThis is to honour this great individual who has been an exemplary person with not only his professional life and serving our country, but also his personal life and his family,\u201d added Braendel. \u201cHe has been a role model for myself and our children.\u201d
\nStephane said he agreed, noting it was a celebration of the past and present.
\n\u201cIt just makes me so happy to see it and that other people get to see it too,\u201d he said. \u201cI hope people really get to understand how many people are really involved. Even if this is just a small community, there are people out there, and some of them are still here like my grandfather, and they should be honoured. We should be grateful to these people.\u201d
\n<\/em><\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir I had wondered if it would lose its impact this year. New initiatives sometimes lose their lustre after the initial period of buzz, the novelty wears off, it becomes more or less \u201cwhite noise\u201d over time. These thoughts were in my mind a few days ago as I strolled from our office […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[29,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18924","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-columns","category-opinion"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-4Ve","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-09-03 16:21:52","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18924","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18924"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18924\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}