An example of a sign that will be made for the “Sarnia War Remembrance Sign Project: Where They Lived”. Image courtesy the City of Sarnia
For 11 days in November 2024, nearly 160 properties in the city of Sarnia, Ont., will have signs placed on the boulevards of the addresses where fallen soldiers once lived.
The “Sarnia War Remembrance Sign Project: Where They Lived” will put “faces to names, and names to houses where fallen soldiers in the city once lived”, according to a report by Tyler Kula for The Observer. The project is inspired by similar initiatives in places such as Toronto and Ottawa.
Tom St. Amand, who is among the researchers who identified veterans from Sarnia who served in World Wars I and II, the Korean War, and the War in Afghanistan, told the newspaper “there are several short streets where… a number of soldiers who fell in action” lived.
The identified properties will have signs with QR codes on them linking to a website with biographies of the soldiers and a map showing locations of the soldiers’ former homes.
The idea was pitched by Doug Woods, father of singer-songwriter Donovan Woods, who was inspired after seeing a similar project in Toronto. “We certainly don’t want to see it occur again, but World War II had to happen, and we should be pretty proud of our soldiers that reacted as well as they did,” Woods told The Observer.
Working together, St. Amand, Woods, and Tom Slater, another Sarnia local, found 242 soldiers from Sarnia who had fallen in wars. “We couldn’t find every soldier to be honest,” said St. Amad.
The homes of about 80 of the fallen soldiers no longer exist and have been replaced by parking lots or businesses. For such soldiers, signs will be arranged in Centennial Park, located near the Royal Canadian Legion branch, to simulate a military cemetery, as per The Observer.
The expenses for the project, estimated between $5,000 to $6,000, and mostly related to printing costs, have been covered by donors, Woods told the newspaper.
The project was approved by the Sarnia City Council in June. The council plans to send letters to homeowners in October, detailing the project and hoping they will welcome the signs on their boulevards.
