{"id":33632,"date":"2023-09-28T19:59:13","date_gmt":"2023-09-28T23:59:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=33632"},"modified":"2023-09-28T19:59:15","modified_gmt":"2023-09-28T23:59:15","slug":"art-contest-gives-youth-the-chance-to-think-about-ongoing-importance-of-remembrance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/art-contest-gives-youth-the-chance-to-think-about-ongoing-importance-of-remembrance\/","title":{"rendered":"Art contest gives youth the chance to think about ongoing importance of Remembrance"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Opportunities to hear about the true costs of war are becoming fewer and far between as veterans of the Second World War and Korean War rapidly take their place in history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But in the lead-up to Remembrance Day, the younger generations are being encouraged to get their creative juices flowing to propel the message forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each year, in partnership with local schools, the Royal Canadian Legion hosts National Youth Remembrance Contests that \u201cfoster the tradition of Remembrance though visual art, writing and video.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each Legion branch hosts the local contests, with local judges, and winning entrants then progress to the Regional and District levels and, if they go the distance, to the Provincial and Federal levels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is an opportunity to provide young people with the chance to ponder and think about what Remembrance really means for them; they can either write essays, poems, or create artwork,\u201d says Claude Arcand, a long-time member of the Royal Canadian Legion\u2019s Aurora branch and retired teacher who facilitates the program locally. \u201cThe theme boils down to Remembrance \u2013 what does Remembrance mean to you? Depending on how it is presented to the young people in their schools, I will see artwork coming back focusing primarily on the historical aspect of participation in World War 1 and World War 2. Others will have an association with the fact that we are now still serving here, there and everywhere in the world. We have had imagery in the past which shows peacekeepers and military personnel in Afghanistan, Bosnia and things of that nature, but the basic theme is Remembrance.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last year\u2019s crop of Aurora talent produced stunning results with a number of local students advancing right to the nationals, including Georgia Chivers, an Aurora High School Student who took first place nationally in the Senior Black & White Posters category.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her work features a soldier looking over the stark grave of one of the fallen in reverence with the word \u201cRemember\u201d emblazoned above him on the Canadian flag.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy mom encouraged me to participate in the contest for the last year I was eligible and I participated every year when I was a kid,\u201d says Chivers. \u201cI did well in the contest, usually winning in York Region, and then stopped creating art once I started high school to focus on work, but, on a whim, I decided to try for my last year and I am so glad I did.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chivers says she was first inspired to try her hand at art by her mother, an artist and art teacher herself. In this final year in the contest, her artistic vision was to make the viewer feel the emotion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe recognition ceremony [held at the Legion this past summer] felt like such an honour to be there with so many respected veterans,\u201d she says. \u201cI was nervous to go up there in front of everyone at first and shake people\u2019s hands, but after chatting with them briefly about my art and getting their point of view, I was so incredibly honoured to just be there and listen to their experiences.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also recognized at this ceremony was another young artist who went the distance, Marcus Ly, an area student whose drawing of two figures praying over the grave of a solider – a cross surrounded by poppies — took home first place in the Primary category.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI thought it would be nice and be of meaning, too,\u201d says Marcus, adding his art teacher encouraged him to enter. \u201cI was really excited and I thought I was going to be famous because I won out of all Canada!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marcus\u2019 mom, Diana, says Marcus \u201creally put his mind\u201d into his art \u201cand it shows in the artwork he created.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhether you have an interest in art or not, it\u2019s a great way to have a creative outlet,\u201d she says. \u201cWe were in awe with the art \u2013 the professionalism and recognition really brought to our attention there are a lot of great artists out there and it\u2019s wonderful they have an opportunity for kids to be inspired and take advantage of it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Legionnaires are hoping that even more kids and youth will be able to take advantage of the program this year. Facilitators like Arcand and Bonnie Robertson, Chair of the Legion\u2019s Poppy Committee, have set a goal for themselves to get the contests\u2019 entry packages into even more hands at local schools in Aurora, King Township, and down into Oak Ridges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They hope to have these packages to the schools by the end of this month and following up with them in October before the submission deadline of November 17 \u2013 the Friday after Remembrance Day.<\/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":"

Local Legion hopes to reach more schools this fall<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":33633,"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_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":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33632","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/2023-09-28-04.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-8Ks","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-31 18:51:43","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\/33632","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=33632"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33632\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}