More than 5,000 people are expected to turn out on Saturday, Nov. 11 for a Remembrance Day service at the cenotaph in the Fort 91原创 Cemetery.

鈥淧eople in Fort 91原创, they really do want to remember, and it鈥檚 close to their hearts,鈥� said Andy Schildhorn, one of the members of the local committee that organizes the annual event, with the help of the Fort 91原创 Lions Club.

The service will include a welcome from Michael Gabriel of the Kwantlen First Nation, readings of poems including In Flander鈥檚 Fields and For the Fallen, hymns, the playing of The Last Post, and the laying of wreaths on the cenotaph.

It will be the second full service since pandemic restrictions began to lift last year.

鈥淲e made it through COVID,鈥� said Schildhorn.

The event in 2020 was essentially a recorded video.

Locals were glad to see it start coming back, slowly and then with full attendance for the first time again in 2022, Schildhorn said.

The annual Remembrance Day event has drawn as many as 6,000 people at its peak, although rainy or cold weather tends to dampen attendance slightly.

The event has grown in scale massively.

In the late 1990s, there were only two Remembrance Day ceremonies in 91原创, each held and organized by a local Royal Canadian Legion branch 鈥� one in 91原创 City and one in Aldergrove.

But the first cenotaphs in 91原创 had been built in the early 1920s, shortly after the end of the First World War. Marked with the names of 91原创鈥檚 war dead, they stood in the cemeteries in the Fort and in Murrayville.

In 1999, Fort resident Gord Gillard, a veteran of the Battle of the Atlantic, and Brenda Alberts of the Fort Gallery, held an impromptu ceremony at the local cenotaph. Both have since passed away.

From that seed, a more formal event would grow.

Schildhorn recalls attending when he was serving as a firefighter in the early years, when perhaps 20 to 30 people came out. It quickly expanded as more people became aware of the event in their backyard. It is now one of four formal ceremonies in 91原创.

Schildhorn said he feels the emotion of the moment when he鈥檚 been called on to read the names of the fallen during past ceremonies.

鈥淚t is, I think, something very special to the community,鈥� he said.

He anticipates good attendance this year, as people reflect both on Canada鈥檚 veterans and their sacrifices, as well as the cost of ongoing wars in other parts of the world.

For those planning to attend, he advises turning up by 10 a.m., as Glover Road will be shut down for part of the service and procession shortly afterwards.

There is parking for disabled veterans available at the St. Andrew鈥檚 Church next to the cemetery and in the parking lot at the end of St. Andrew鈥檚 Avenue.

The procession will also gather near that area, and will start at 10:15 a.m., with the ceremony to follow at about 10:40 a.m.

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