To keep the venue small and discourage crowds, the Royal Canadian Legion Branch 52 and the City of Kamloops have opted to use the smaller Battle Street Cenotaph for this year's Remembrance Day ceremony. (Image Credit: Kent Simmonds)

By Dylana Kneeshaw

REMEMBRANCE DAY 2020

Public asked to avoid crowding this year’s Remembrance Day ceremony in Kamloops

Oct 13, 2020 | 4:09 PM

KAMLOOPS — Come November 11, there won’t be hundreds of people gathered for the annual Remembrance Day ceremony in Riverside Park. Instead, the Battle Street Cenotaph will host a small contingent of veterans.

“Remembrance Day ceremonies will pretty much be the same, it’s just that we’re going to be limited by COVID to 50 people,” explains Craig Thomson, Remembrance Day Co-ordinator.

This year’s gathering will be ‘By Veterans, For Veterans’. The ceremony will be televised on CFJC TV, and a live stream through the Kamloops Legion Facebook page will be available for the public. However invitation priority for the in-person event will be given to those who have served.

“Make it a little different his year, don’t come out into the cold, and stay home and watch it on TV,” says Thomson. “Hopefully, this is a one-time affair that we’ve had to change things up. Hopefully, everything will be back to normal next year.”

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People are being asked to avoid gathering along the streets adjacent to the cenotaph and respect the need to keep event attendance capped at 50.

To keep participation to a minimum, Thomson says the ceremony also won’t have a fly-by from the 419 Squadron out of Cold Lake, large groups of military, police and first responders won’t be present and public wreaths will be laid ahead of time by the Legion.

“The norm is that people will present their own wreaths at the cenotaph. This year, we’ll do it for you,” says Thomson.

Legion Branch 52 President Daniel Martin says residents can still show support leading up to the event with their poppy campaign headquarters opening at the end of October for poppy, wreath and face mask purchases. The Kamloops headquarters will be in last year’s location at the 249 Seymour Street business centre.

Martin says the amount of campaign boxes in public locations will be slightly reduced this year as many stores have opted not to have the poppy tables set up.

“Some stores are going to use point of sale,” he says, noting that donations can be given during check-out. “For example, if you go to Wal-mart, they’re going to ask if you want to do a donation. And if you say yes, they will punch it into their system instead of having an exchange of hands.”

Given the tight limits on participation, Martin says he and Remembrance Day organizers hope residents will honour Canada’s veterans from home and remember what they fought for.

“Hopefully the public will understand. This is like what Craig (Thomson) was saying, a one time thing. COVID hopefully will be gone by next year and then we can resume our normal activities.”