Stephen Wilson is a teacher at Belleisle High School pictured with him here (L-R) are students Daniel Ganong, Emily Isbill and Lynn Reicker, and seated at right Past President Lou McNamara. He has been assigning his students with the names of World War II war heroes that did not make it home and asking that they research and create documents on them.
Stephen has been to Europe with several students and been on several Canadian Battlefield Tours. He took a trip to Italy, Belgium and France with teachers from all across Canada. What hit home for him was all the “thank you’s” he heard while on the trip, even after 60 years since Canada was there to free them. He said as soon as locals realized they were there from Canada, they were very appreciative. Stephen made a point to thank Harley Geldart for his invitation to speak to the club...
The students can request files from Libraries and Archives Canada in Ottawa for soldiers who died at war. If the veteran is still alive or did not die in combat, then it is much more difficult. In most cases, only the immediate family can obtain existing records. Most of the soldiers they have researched are from the Riverbank Cemetery just outside of Norton.
They also have a veteran that has been helping them with their research and getting names to assign to students; he is a local from the area. Other individuals have approached them, asking to have a friend or relative researched for them. Stephen and students are sharing their work on the 'Lest We Forget' Project online at the Belleisle Regional High School website.
Stephen took a group of students to Italy last year, and they did a Canadian Battlefield Tour, and they saw several memorials and tombstones belonging to fellow Canadians.
Each student is responsible for their profile or documentary, and they all use Windows Movie Maker to deliver their project on the individuals they have been assigned. It takes them one year to do the research and about 12 hours to create the videos, which average four minutes each. We watched several videos on individuals from the Sussex and surrounding area.
You can contact Stephen at Stephen.Wilson@nbed.nb.ca.