Sarnia sign project aims to keep memory of fallen soldiers alive
Signs will go up at roughly 240 homes from Nov. 1 to 12
Remembrance Day is three months away, but some people in Sarnia are already hard at work on a project to honour the city's fallen soldiers.
The Sarnia War Remembrance Sign Project puts faces to names, and names to houses where these heroes once lived.
The idea came when a son of one of the organizers came across a laminated photo on a power pole in Toronto. It was accompanied by information about a fallen solider who lived in the Toronto house where he was living.
Tom St. Amand is one of the researchers behind the project and says work began in earnest in February.
"We knew that Sarnia had a very rich military record, and we thought perhaps that we could pay some more tribute to these extraordinary individuals in our community," he said.
St. Amand says they've found 242 soldiers in the Sarnia area and confirmed their addresses.
Most of the background work for the project had already been done, he added, giving it a robust foundation.
"Tom Slater had spent over a decade extensively researching individual fallen soldiers from Sarnia throughout the years, and the result was the Sarnia War Remembrance Project. It's an invaluable two-volume book that provided biographies of every fallen soldier from Sarnia."
Every sign will be posted from Nov. 1 to Nov. 12 and include a QR code linking people to soldier biographies, interactive maps, videos and articles.
The project is free to the community.
"It's a powerful thing for people to see this, and I think it's really important because most of the young men who went to war — they did some extraordinary things."
St. Amand calls the soldiers "heroic" and believes it's necessary for their legacies not to be forgotten.
"They were just ordinary people who lived in houses that people still occupy and addresses that are still there today for the most part."
There's one short street in Sarnia, John Street, where St. Amand says there are five houses that fallen soldiers used to live in.
He says most homeowners they've come across so far are learning about the people who once lived there for the first time.
"For the most part, not one of them really have an idea, but they were all very, very touched and proud and honoured that their house was once home to a fallen veteran."