Museum and BBIA unveil memorial boards

by KRISTENA SCHUTT-MOORE

Staff

The Bancroft Business Improvement Association and the Bancroft North Hastings Heritage Museum teamed up on Friday, Nov. 11, and honoured those named on the Bancroft Cenotaph who never returned home.
The two organizations teamed up and applied for the Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee Grant and the BBIA received $2,500 for the structure of the memorial boards now located on both sides of the Cenotaph and the Museum received $4,000 to create the display. Both Memorial Boards are four feet by eight feet in size and feature pictures and background stories about those whose names appear on the Cenotaph.
This is to give more of a connection to those featured on the Cenotaph. Queen Elizabeth II is also featured on the center of each board as part of Bancroft's celebration of her 70th anniversary Platinum Jubilee and her life.

MP Shelby Kramp-Neuman, who dedicated the memorial boards said, “As Candians, it is imperative that we understand the sacrifice our Armed Forces Members and their families paid and continue to pay for our freedoms. Through the sharing of experiences, our veterans are passing the torch to those who will continue their memory. Our communities and governments have a very important role to play in ensuring the legacy of our brave men and women in uniform is passed onto future generations. Through collaboration, institutions are able to create lasting tributes to our past in the form of statues, museums, and the case of Bancroft, memorials and artwork. I want to take this opportunity to briefly thank both the Town of Bancroft and my federal partners for coming together and securing funding to honour our local veterans. Thanks to their diligence and dedications we have Freddy Ayers mural on the outside of the legion redone, and permanent memorials are erected in honour of the local men who left Bancroft to serve Canada during the two world wars and never came home.”
The memorial boards will be a permanent addition to Cenotaph Park and those interested in learning more about those that served in the World Wars from the North Hastings area are invited to visit them, to see their pictures and read their stories.