economist sunsuntribune remembrance day saturday nov 6 2004 it student filmmakers get taste of war from veterans by hannelore volpe staff writer it was a chance for war veter ans to have their memories recorded for a tv special but turned out to be just as much a valuable education experience for students filming them stduffville markham and hamilton veterans shared stories of their wartime exploits with a class of grade 12 filmmakers from unionville high school the halfhour remembrance day special on the second world war veterans airs on tvo thurs day at 2 pm so many family stories are lost because nobody took the time to record them teacher shefia hetherington said she- and fellow instructor jerrys berridge combined their expertise in history and com munications technology to cre ate a challenging history assign ment for their 25 students some of whom are the same age as the veterans when they went to war s students met veterans in the classroom and travelled to loca tions such as the canadian war- plane heritage museum warship hmcs haida and cfb borden the best interviews however were in casual moments such as on longbus rides back home using technology is a good way to put the stories across that nobody usually gets to hear danielle yamashita unionville high school filmmaker veterans in the film include stduffville residents harry bowes bui scott and george lovett markham resident margaret ack- royd and joyce forrest from hamilton the students spent days many evenings and weekends to prepare the film they didnt just interview their elders they com posed and played original music for the film they dealt with copy right laws and contacted the national film board and national archives- apple canada lent the class laptop computers so they could work on the project whenever possible as a result of the film many of the students started delving into their family histories and discov ered they too had veterans in the family ms hetherington said harry bowes flew more than 30 missions as a bomb aimer in 1944 and part of 1945 out of the lincolnshire air force base in england he wore his old uniform for interviews at the canadian warplane heritage museum and found young people fascinated by the lancaster bomber there when markham resident danielle yamashita returned home on the same bus as mr bowes after visiting the museum she found she learned even more it was amazing she said it was different without a camera in your face i got to ask a lot more questions the 17yearold student saw photographs of mr- bowes and his former crew and learned more about his war experiences using technology is a good way to put the stories across that nobody usually gets to hear she said george lovett met the stu dents at the hmcs haida destroyer in hamilton and in their studio at unionville high after enlisting at 16 he soon found himself on a fourstacker an american destroyer escorting convoys across the ocean later he volunteered for the japanese war but by the time we got there they had already capitulated mr lovett said he became part of a group policing hong kong for three months they are an amazing group of kids he said there were singers actors camera people they have the best equipment you will ever find bill scott travelled to cfb bor den in barrie he was one of the dday dodgers a controversial name given to allied troops who fought in italy for a year before the landings in normandy france on dday june 6 1944 the idea was to divert as many german divi sions to italy as possible paving the way for dday when he left for the war he was only 17 said markham resi dent bryan adare who inter viewed mr scott his mother was worried about him going this is riot what anyones mother wants to have happen before doing this project remembrance day was some thing that happened at school mr adare noted but now that we have had a chance to talk to veterans i have much more- respect for what the people did in both world wars he said this is the best project j have ever unionville high school students working on second world war documentary interview stouffville veterans george lovett left arid bill scott worked on stouffville resident jennifer manson talked to margaret ack- royd and joyce forrest to get a feeling for the contribution of women in the forces they brought out photo albums and recounted their experiences for several hours both were entertainers during the war following troops across europe to hospitals and army camps they would do two or three shows daily ms ackroyd was with the cwacs the canada an womens army corps ms for rest spent several years in hol land at a dance her companion offered to carry her shoes she told ms manson but later 1 returned with only one when she went to inquire some time later she found the shoe was hanging in a lancaster bomber for good luck before heading back home on the bus from the warplane her itage museum mr bowes read quotes from several famous gen erals every one of therii hated war he said unionville high school students interview stouffville war veteran and councillor harry bowes at the its time to get out of the gutter and into the lanes visit wwwmshonca foundation events for registration information 6r call the foundation office at 9054727059 sponsorship opportunities still available enter a team today join us for the official after party u we duchess of markharri main street markham isponsors ifflgabjait6 our geriim isolvay pharma inc mar ji printing conpanyjlimited iai swwl2wuu