{"id":32177,"date":"2022-11-10T13:51:18","date_gmt":"2022-11-10T18:51:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=32177"},"modified":"2022-11-17T19:08:24","modified_gmt":"2022-11-18T00:08:24","slug":"christmas-card-campaign-for-soldiers-in-full-swing-for-remembrance-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/christmas-card-campaign-for-soldiers-in-full-swing-for-remembrance-week\/","title":{"rendered":"Christmas Card campaign for soldiers in full swing for Remembrance Week"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

At Remembrance Day services across the country, we pay silent tribute to the men and women who paid the ultimate sacrifice for King, Queen and Country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But if you had the chance to tell them what their service meant to you, what would you say?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, you can express your thanks to serving members of the Canadian Armed Forces this holiday season with a simple card in a drive spearheaded by Aurora resident Dianne Harrison.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in the second half of her second decade leading the charge of collecting thousands of cards from residents that are then distributed to Canadian servicepersons stationed from coast to coast to coast, and all around the world, Ms. Harrison is visiting schools, libraries and other gathering places to help reach her goal of 8,000 cards for the troops.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each year, Ms. Harrison is moved by the messages that come in from everyone ranging from Grade 1 students to seniors, but says this year\u2019s messages have added poignancy as youngsters remain concerned about Russia\u2019s illegal war in Ukraine and the impact that might have on the rest of the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am getting notes and emails back from our students who are making cards this year, so we\u2019re going to have a lot of cards this year made with love and respect,\u201d says Ms. Harrison. \u201cI tell the kids to just let [the soldiers] you\u2019re writing to know you care about them back home. People forget that their families are giving up so much with them being overseas. The cards are made with so much love and respect. We were overwhelmed and touched last year by what the kids were saying. I think the kids are more aware of what\u2019s going on now and what\u2019s happening. They know more about the world and COVID has opened their eyes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne family on Golf Links Drive said their kids want to know more about the world and Canada. They got a note last year from the northernmost part of Canada at a post and wanted to know where it was. I think it has given the kids a good idea of geography, because in a lot of cases they haven\u2019t heard of these places before.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While cards aren\u2019t addressed to any specific serviceperson, rest assured they will all reach good hands \u2013 and one of the bonuses of writing is you simply don\u2019t know what kind of response you\u2019ll get, or from where.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One serving member wrote to kids last year from the Arctic and said, \u201cIt\u2019s so cold up here that when we got your cards we smiled, our faces froze, and our smiles lasted for quite a while,\u201d Harrison recalls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cKids know what\u2019s going on in the world [including Ukraine]. Even our grandchildren are talking about what\u2019s going to happen. Is there going to be a war? That\u2019s a concern. One of our granddaughters said, \u2018Are we going to have fighting and bombs here in Canada?\u2019 and this is from a 12-year-old.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the end of the day, these cards are just a simple way to say \u201cthank you\u201d to the people who put themselves in harm\u2019s way for King, Country, friend and neighbour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPeople don\u2019t have to put a stamp on it, it\u2019s free of charge,\u201d says Harrison. \u201cI encourage people to take cards into work and have their coworkers sign them, too. What does it take to go out and buy a box of cards? A box of cards is nothing compared to what these soldiers are doing for us. It\u2019s the least we can do back home.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Completed cards can be placed in drop boxes located at Aurora Town Hall, the Aurora Public Library, the Aurora Seniors\u2019 Centre, and the Aurora Family Leisure Complex. Writers can also contact Dianne Harrison and husband Brian to arrange pick-up at bdharrison2012@gmail.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cards and letters must be received by November 28.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir
Editor
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter<\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At Remembrance Day services across the country, we pay silent tribute to the men and women who paid the ultimate sacrifice for King, Queen and Country. But if you had the chance to tell them what their service meant to you, what would you say? Well, you can express your thanks to serving members of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_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}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-8mZ","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-22 19:25:39","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32177","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=32177"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32177\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}