Legion offers two Remembrance Day services Monday

Last year on November 11, a crowd gathered around the traditional focal point of the Clock Tower cenotaph on Queen Street, and heard from Lord Mayor Gary Zalepa that the town landmark, at 100 years old, was badly in need of repairs.

After a few months of scaffolding recently and some limit to parking spaces, the scaffolding around the iconic landmark is now gone, and the exterior work completed in time for the ceremony, as promised, with financial support from the Royal Canadian Legion and the community.

The cenotaph is a memorial to community members who made the ultimate sacrifice to protect the values and ensure the liberties enjoyed today, “our neighbours, friends, family members and leaders,” said Zalepa, and the reading of their names has been a tradition of the annual Remembrance Day ceremony.

Once again the Court House will be decorated with poppies by NOTL Museum volunteers for the Remembrance Day ceremony, which will begin at 10:50 a.m.

There will be a small change to the Queen Street parade of those marching, leading up to the service, said Legion member Al Howse, but nothing that affects spectators.

Due to the declining number of those marching, the parade route has been shortened, explained Howse.

“We don’t need as much space” to set up for the parade, he said, so they will be using Regent Street as their staging location, with the parade route starting from Regent and marching to the cenotaph from the opposite direction than other years.

While the numbers in the parade have decreased in recent years, the number of spectators has not, he said. Last year Remembrance Day fell on a weekend, which always brings out a bigger crowd, but the ceremony still attracts good attendance.

Air cadets from the local squadron will begin their vigil at the cenotaph as 6 a.m., and a portion of Queen Street will be closed to traffic by 9:30 a.m. Remarks will be offered again by Zalepa, as last year, and is tradition, there will be a reading of In Flanders Fields.

The service at the Queenston cenotaph will begin at 1 p.m. with remarks from MP Tony Baldinelli and MPP Wayne Gates.

On Friday, Legion members are visiting seniors at Pleasant Manor and Upper Canada Lodge, said Howse, but will not be able to go to Niagara Long Term Care Residence on Wellington Street due to a COVID outbreak.