Oakville Newspapers

Oakville Beaver, 10 Nov 2010, p. 3

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FOR INVESTORS OVER AGE 50 WHO ARE PLANNING TO RETIRE OR HAVE ALREADY RETIRED AND WHO WANT TO AVOID COSTLY MISTAKES Peter Watson MBA, CFP, R.F.P., CIM, FCSI Peter is a well-known financial educator in Oakville. Mr.Watson has taught people how to preserve their assets, increase their income and reduce income taxes. Peters opinion and advise is regularly requested. He has written over 400 articles on Investments and Wealth Management. Since founding Peter Watson Investments in 1991, he has been voted the Best Financial Planner in Oakville nine times. Do not miss this opportunity to hear one of Oakvilles most knowledgeable speakers, and learn how to avoid the six most expensive financial mistakes made by retirees. To reserve your seats email us at info@peterwatsoninvestments.com or call us at (905) 842-2100 Ext: 6 (24 hours) YOUR PRESENTER THURS Nov 25, 2010 10 am, 2 pm, 7 pm SAT Nov 27, 2010 10 am DATES OLIVER AND BONACINI RESTAURANT Oakville Place (Trafalgar & QEW) Seats are FREE but limited LOCATION Six Mistakes Retirees Make with Their Finances And How to Avoid Them 1. Paying too much tax 2. The pitfalls of mutual funds 3. Getting asset allocation wrong 4. Three problems with investment fees 5. Failure to understand the stock market 6. Erosion of purchasing power with infl ation 3 W ednesday , N ovem ber 10, 2010 O A KVILLE BEA V ER w w w .o akvillebeaver .co m By David Lea OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF They are so much more than just num- bers. They were fathers, sons, brothers, moth- ers and daughters. The 68,000 Canadians killed during the First World War were made real again at Oakville Trafalgar High School (OTHS) Thursday, as their names were projected on a screen during the opening ceremony of a National School Vigil. This seven-day event is being carried out in 150 schools across Canada with the pur- pose of engaging Canadian students and their local communities in a unique project of remembrance. Halton District School Board Ward 3 Trustee Philippa Ellis commended the stu- dents of OTHS for embracing the project and making it their own. She also spoke about the projects impor- tance. Each individual name of the 68,000 who lost their lives will be projected and it is awe- some, it embodies the number of people, just the enormity of the sacrifice and the loss in a very real way, said Ellis to a largely student audience. Those were people who left families, their children, their par- ents, their loved ones behind and I think this is a really great way for you to embrace their sacrifice and the loss for those families and to remember what they did for this country. The 68,000 names projected include the fallen members of the Canadian Expeditionary Force, the Canadian Merchant Navy, the Canadian Army Medical Corps and the Royal Newfoundland Regiment. Sixty-seven of these fallen were women who died as either nurses or crew members in the merchant navy. The names appear in no particular order with the exception of Private George Lawrence Price, whose name appears last. A German sniper shot and killed Price about two minutes before the armistice came into effect at 11 a.m., on Nov. 11, 1918. Price, a Canadian, is generally recognized as the last soldier killed during the First World War. Students also heard from local military author Tom Douglas, who praised the pro- ducers of the vigil project, R.H. Thomson and Martin Conboy, for providing 150 schools across Canada with the names of Canadas 68,000 First World War dead, pro- jection software and the technical advice needed to make the vigil a reality. He also spoke about his time as commu- nications assistant to the Minister of Veterans Affairs, Bennett Campbell, a role that allowed him to hear first-hand accounts of Canadas involvement at such places as Vimy Ridge, the Somme, Passchendaele and Ypres. One particularly memorable pilgrimage was to Vimy Ridge in November of 1983 where I spent several days in the company of 19 World War I veterans, said Douglas. One of the men on the trip broke into uncontrollable sobs when we stopped at one battlefield where he had lost two brothers during the war. However, he later admitted that he finally had closure over their deaths something he had been looking for all his life. Douglas also said when Francois Mitterrand, the presi- dent of France at the time, heard 19 Canadian First World War veterans were in his country, he invited the group to take part in Remembrance Day ceremonies at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. The memory of those 19 proud Canadians all of them in their late 70s or 80s and all of them, unfortunately, now deceased marching smartly down the Champs Elysees to the cadence of a French military band still brings a lump to my throat and a tear to my eye, said Douglas. While projecting the names of Canadas First World War dead is something schools are doing nationally, OTHS students took the act of remembrance a step farther with Pam Calverts history class researching the names of 11 former OTHS students, who died in the First World War and whose names are now engraved on the school ceno- taph. The students used the original military archives, attestation papers, medical records, wills and spoke with living relatives to try and find the stories behind the names on the wall. Grade 12 student Julia Barber spoke about the short life of Private Jack Telfer Bowerbank. Barber said that before the war Bowerbank was a basket maker, who played the clarinet in the school band. She also said he was popular among his classmates and was called peanut by his friends. Bowerbank, whose two brothers also went to war, was one of 90 Canadians killed in France on July 23, 1917 during a counter- attack in which the Germans released poi- son gas. He died at the young age of 23, said Barber. There are truly not enough words to express my thanks to Jack and the other (past) students from OTHS. Jack, your story is one I will never forget. With the presentations complete, those present watched a video showing images of Canadians in battle during the First World War as well as images of the cemeteries where many now lay and images of the loved ones they left behind. The video was shown as the hauntingly beautiful song Willie McBride told the story of a man, who has come upon the grave of a 19-year-old soldier and wondered what hap- pened to that soldier and what he left behind. One verse reads, And did you leave a wife or a sweetheart behind In some faithful heart does your memory enshrine And though you died back in 1916 In some faithful heart are you forever 19? Or are you a stranger without even a name Enshrined forever behind the glass pane Of an old photograph, torn and tattered and stained And fading to yellow in a brown leather frame? The vigil at OTHS, which is being shown in a room filled with First World War photos, arti- facts and soldiers stories, will be open for pub- lic viewing on weekdays from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. It can also be viewed on Sunday, Nov. 7, from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. The public is also welcome to attend the OTHS closing ceremony to the vigil, which will run from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. today (Nov. 10). School vigil honours Canadians killed in First World War KAREN NEWMAN / OAKVILLE BEAVER REMEMBERING THE FALLEN: Oakville Trafalgar High School took part in a National School Vigil, which featured the scrolling of the names of the 68,000 Canadians killed in the First World War.

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