Canadian soldiers putting their lives on the line overseas will soon get some special messages handwritten to them by dozens of Abbotsford students.
On Friday, Nov. 7, students at Mt. Lehman Elementary were able to present their latest projects to Sgt. David Scrivens of the Canadian Armed Forces.
The veteran from Langley was front and centre to see kids from kindergarten to Grade 5 sing the national anthem, stand at attention for a performance of The Last Post, bring out handmade wreaths, and sing along to patriotic music while waving their handwritten cards.
Each of these cards had some Remembrance Day-themed art on the front and a unique message on the inside to the members of the Canadian military.
Scrivens said he was honoured to be able to represent the Canadian Armed Forces at this small but mighty presentation, which was one of several that he attended in the run-up to Remembrance Day.
“I do a lot of school visits, and to see the elementary students get taught all about what Canada does throughout the world and see the students participating and making cards, it’s amazing,” he said.
As a longtime member of the military, Scrivens knows firsthand what the support of this country’s youth can mean to a soldier putting their life on the line.
He enlisted in the Canadian military straight out of high school in 1997, soon being deployed to Bosnia on a peacekeeping operation during the Yugoslav Wars.
Nearly a decade later, he would once again be deployed, this time to Afghanistan in 2008.
While overseas, he was subjected to countless firefights and even took a 25mm canon shell to the helmet.
Luckily, he managed to make it home and continued to be involved with the Canadian Armed Forces in less deadly roles.
Now, he gets joy out of helping other active soldiers know how much their fellow Canadians respect them and are cheering them on.
One of the ways he does this is by receiving the more than 100 handwritten cards made by the students at Mt. Lehman Elementary and making sure they get into the right hands.
“Currently, we have about 5,000 soldiers serving in Latvia, so I’m going to ship all of these cards to them,” Scrivens said.