Remembrance Day has started in Riverside. The Legion Branch 255 has once again placed 48 banners on street lights along Wyandotte Street in memory of the lives lost to conflict and war. They will remain until after Nov. 11. Legion vice-President Marty Flanagan is proud to say the project has doubled in size since it started five years ago. “We started off with 24. The next year. After that, we doubled up to 48. And we’ve been holding it between 50 and 48. And that’s our limit is between 50 and 48. So we’ve been holding the maximum ever since,” says Flanagan. Flanagan says this year, the banners on the south side of Wyandotte run parallel to the street, in an effort to prevent damage. “We’ve been getting a lot of banners on the south side because the banners are lower. They’ve been getting hit 80 per cent by trucks. Some of it is the weather, but mainly trucks. And we’re trying to minimize that to keep the cost down. So we made the decision to flip at 90 because we want to make sure the banners are up there,” he says. Over the last five years, Flanagan says some costs for the project have gone up while others have stayed the same. “Our banner manufacturer, who does mainly the banners from all across Canada, he’s from up in Wiarton, Ontario. He’s been keeping the banner prices down to exact same for the five years. So they have not risen. I assume they’re going to go up next year. He’s going to have to. But it’s the metal poles that we put up,” says Flanagan. Enwin employees volunteered their time on Sunday to put the banners up, a partnership that is vital to the projects success, according to Flanagan. He hopes drivers and pedestrians take time to look at, read and reflect about the 48 people who are memorialized along Wyandotte Street East near Villaire Avenue. Anyone who wants to have a loved one commemorated can go to the Legion branch on Wyandotte at Villaire to ask about being involved in next years campaign.
