For the 18th year, thousands of crosses are lining Memorial Drive for the annual Field of Crosses project. Sunday morning saw the field open with a sunrise ceremony, honouring all who died serving their country. “It’s an opportunity to make sure that everyone remembers. And for me, in my two minutes of silence, I remember those that I actually knew that are no longer in our lives,” said Maj. (Retired) Kent Griffiths. “It needs to be a duty. We have to remember the sacrifice of the men and women who put on a uniform and served for Canada in various parts of the world,” said Sean Libin, Chair of the Field of Crosses board of directors. The Wainwright tragedy still remains fresh in the minds of many, and as the community gathered to remember the sacrifices our soldiers made, emphasis was placed on all soldiers who served, and continue to serve. “Soldiers were suiting up, going to train, getting ready to go to deploy to Latvia and lost their lives in that training. We have to remember the sacrifices of all of our service people,” Libin said. “We also have to remember there were thousands who were killed in training, just like what happened in Wainwright. So if our thoughts go to all of them as well this year, that’s going to expand the remembrance that takes place,” Griffiths said. 3,700 crosses populate the field, many decorated with photos and biographies so that anyone paying their respects can better know the service member who made the ultimate sacrifice. It also serves as a reminder that freedom isn’t free. “I’ve had many immigrants, new Canadians, come to the Field of Crosses to look and understand who these people were, because they came from a place that maybe didn’t have freedom and they weren’t able to do what we take sometimes for granted here in Canada,” Libin said. “I think that’s one of the things about remembrance, is we can never take for granted the freedoms that we have,” Libin continued. A family honours their son One of many in attendance at the sunrise ceremony was Terri Stirling. The Stirling family attended to remember and mourn the loss of their son, T.J., a veteran who served in Afghanistan. “He was involved in an IED explosion where he lost two of his comrades, and he survived. He decided in 2006 he needed to do another full tour, which he did, and he retired from the military in 2008. Unfortunately, he was a victim of PTSD, and he passed on August 18 of 2009,” Terri said. Terri says there isn’t a day that goes by where she doesn’t miss T.J., and the Field of Crosses is an incredibly important way to remember who he was and his sacrifice. “There are no words to say how proud I am of him. He excelled in the military, he loved the military, and serving with his brothers was an honour for him,” Terri said. “They gave everything, and they left families behind, which affected so many people,” Terri continued. A growing legacy Libin explained the Field of Crosses is run entirely by volunteers and community members, and not any governing body or the military. He says this project has grown from 300 crosses to 3,700, and the hardworking volunteers continue to find ways to further the goal of remembrance. “It’s grown exponentially, but so has everything that’s gone with it: the volunteer commitment that we have, the level of detail that we have in biography cards researched by students for example, and just the ownership that Calgarians have of this special memorial tribute,” Libin said. Because it’s a community effort, he says the growth has been organic, adding the community has really taken ownership of the Field of Crosses. “It brings Canadians together in a way that they’re unified to the point where we remember that there’s this commonality of service to our country,” Libin said.
