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Racing towards the future
VisionSandown collecting ideas from the community on what to do with race track, page 3
Stories from Tanzania
Sidney author Chris Harker has penned his third book, detailing trips in Africa, page 9
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Friday, November 6, 2015
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A proper way to remember them Central Saanich veteran finally seeing action on a new, larger cenotaph Carlie Connolly News staff
Since 2001, Ed Widenmaier has been working hard with a team to replace a small cenotaph in Central Saanich. Widenmaier is a founding member of the Peacekeeping Veterans Association and he and others put together a stone with a plaque on it in front of the municipal hall, using it as a wreath laying site for local Remembrance Day ceremonies, but he said it just isn’t enough. On Nov. 2, the District of Central Saanich approved a new location for the cenotaph to be in Centennial Park. “Finally, throughout years of begging and three different mayors, it was finally established at that meeting that they are going to build a proper cenotaph and they will just transfer that stone with it,” said Widenmaier after learning about the council decision this week. Leslie Fernstrom, a junior deacon at the ■ Nov. 11 Central Saanich Masonic Hall recently ceremonies: made a $10,000 donation towards the Sidney and Central new cenotaph. Being Masons, Fernstrom Saanich host said monuments are their thing . In their remembrance events. own building on Newman Road, he said they Page 15. have a corner stone, laid when the building was first built. “If you look at Masonic tradition, these ■ Memory uncovered: things are part of our heart and soul,” he A Brentwood Bay man said. receives a name tag With a $10,000 start, Central Saanich counfrom France, bearing cil also agreed to match donations as they the name of his father. come in, taking it from their 2017 budget. Page 15 The new cenotaph has to be completed by March 31, 2016 in order to qualify for a ■ Remember them: grant from the federal government through Sidney Museum the Veterans Affairs ministry. display focuses on the Widenmaier said the community is growlocal front. Page 17 ing and with a crowd in a confined space such as the municipal hall, people can’t properly take in the Remembrance Day ceremony, or see the current monument itself. “Ours is like a penny to a Toonie,” he said. He calls it “just an impersonation of a cenotaph” and has been busy trying to get donations from people to go towards the new structure. Fernstrom said the small monument is embarrassing, adding there is something in the ground that nobody knows exists.
Remembrance
PLEASE SEE: Small stone was ‘never adequate’, page 19
Carlie Connolly/News staff
Ed Widenmaier kneels beside the small and only cenotaph in his community at Central Saanich municipal hall.