Our Sandycove Heroes

For the past 27 years the Sandycove Veterans Club have conducted a service on Remembrance Day which is attended by municipal dignitaries, guests and approximately four hundred residents from within Sandycove.  This year’s service was held on Sunday, November 7^th and the weather could not have been better and attributed to the wonderful crowd in attendance.

     

Sea, Army, Air Force and Navy League Cadets based at the Barrie Ontario Armory all send sizeable contingents led by respective officers.   They utilize one from each of the Cadet Corps (Navy League excepted) to lower and raise the Flags during the Last Post.

The Innisfil Pipe and Drum band attends as do also Police and Fire Services from the Innisfil Area.  A well attended luncheon was held at the Wheel Recreation Centre after the service with sandwiches and desserts donated by local businesses and residents. 

The Veteran’s Club recently held a Karaoke Fund Raising Dance & Social & raised $1,125 to update the Sandycove Cenotaph to recognize all past & present veterans and all service personnel currently deployed overseas.

A Month to Remember

Our Sandycove Veterans Club is a vibrant group with 294 members: 77 Veterans, 70 wives of veterans plus an additional 147 men & women who serve as social members.
In 1982 a group of Veterans started the planning necessary to erect a memorial within Sandycove to honour those men and women who paid with their lives so that we could live ours in freedom.

A field gun (shown in the photo) dating back to World War 1, was obtained at an auction and mounted beside the Hub Recreation Hall in the south park as part of the Sandycove memorial. This labour of love and respect was carried out by members of the Sandycove Veterans Club, two of the originating members are still in the park Jack Van Daalen and Muriel (Pat) Thompson. Pat served with the Wrens in World War II. Jack was serving with the Dutch East Indian Army when he was captured by the Japanese and held in internment from 1942 to 1945 when he was liberated by the allies.

Our Sandycove Veterans are a very active group in our community. They participate by organizing & marching in our Canada Day Parade, holding monthly activities & annual poppy sales.