Yesterday, the whole school had an Anzac Day service in the local memorial park which happens to be right next door to the school. The principal asked that all children in all classes bring a couple of flowers to school so that each class could make up their own wreath for the service. Erin's class also made a wreath of paper poppies made by each student and glued together. Representatives from the Mapleton RSL came to the service and the school's year 7 student leaders steered the service. All the wreaths were beautiful because there are so many different coloured flowers on the coast at the moment. I had a bit of a thought that if the same request was made in Adelaide, a wreath would consist of some dry grass and spindly native shrubs. On the flipside, at least Adelaide can do roses which are hard to grow up here with the humidity. Anyway there were lillies, hibiscus and camelias of all colours as well as Sunshine Coast shrubs in bright yellows, purples, oranges and pinks. Even the foliage had colours of burgundy, yellows as well as many shades of green. Erin was chosen by her teacher to help lay the wreaths for their class. The student choir sang and when the last post was played, everyone took their hats off and if kids were slow to respond, they got a quick elbow from the kid next to them.Erin had wanted to write a card for the service so she set about drawing a soldier on the front and chose her words for the inside - "dear men and women of the wars, I feel so sad but thankyou for keeping us free". I was very proud of her.
This morning, Erin had decided that she wanted to participate in the Anzac Day march in Mapleton. Students from the school were encouraged to attend and Erin wanted to be part of it. The march started at 8.30am from a point in Mapleton and would head down to the memorial park for a service. We all walked down there as a family with Erin in her school uniform. She was given an Anzac Day ribbon to pin on her shirt and I also put a sprig of rosemary on her from the caravan park herb garden. She wasn't happy about the smell that made right under her nose. The students lined up in the front while a lone drummer marched ahead and the servicemen and family representatives followed behind. Local people lined the street and clapped as everyone marched past. A salvation army band was playing at the entrance to the park as everyone moved towards the commemorative plaque. The students sat in front as the service commenced. The park was nearly full as all the bystanders had congregated as well as the marchers. The service went for nearly an hour and was quite a moving tribute. There was not only rememberance of the 9 Mapleton men who died during World Wars 1 and 2 but also recognition of those in peace keeping roles today all around the world as well as our diggers in Afghanistan. One speaker gave an enlightening account of the Gallipoli campaign and why it failed but was so important. Gallipoli was actually Australia's first war where we fought as one country and not individual states as it was before federation. It's amazing what you learn. Anyway after the service as we were walking home, Erin and I were talking about Anzac Day. I said that where-ever we go on our trip around Australia, even to the tiniest towns like Mapleton, communities would have suffered some losses as a result of war and that's pretty humbling. To think that no corner of this country was untouched by war, from the largest cities of the time to the smallest communities, we all have something in common, a sense of loss and the need to remember. The whole morning put a new perspective on Anzac Day for me and why we commemorate it. Thankyou Mapleton.
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