An attentive and respectful group of students at West Ferris Secondary School honoured military veterans and the lives lost over more than a century of Canada's involvement in armed conflict.
The faculty at West Ferris hit all the right notes in keeping their students' attention in what was a moving Remembrance Day ceremony held in the school's auditorium.
Portraits of soldiers who attended North Bay Collegiate Institute & Vocational School and who perished in the World Wars line the school's walls. N.B.C.I. students moved from its location at the base of Algonquin Avenue, along with the school's records to the new West Ferris building on Marshall Park Drive in 1971.
West Ferris teacher Mark Robertson regaled the group with a heartfelt tribute to his late father, a veteran of the Second World War who saw action in Italy in some of the conflict's bloodiest battles. Robertson told the students his father's best friend from his home in New Brunswick died in one of those tank battles and Robertson's father was wounded in action before returning to the front.
Robertson's father died on Remembrance Day in 1999, making the day all the more emotional for the teacher and football coach. He told the group his father always ended his war stories by adding he hoped his son would never have to face the horrors of war as he did.
Lest we forget.
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