Aldergrove might only make up a small section of Langley Township, but its residents turn out in big numbers each year to show support for their veterans – alive and passed, young and old – on Remembrance Day.
As has been the case for decades, the Aldergrove’s services will begin at 10:40 a.m. with a short parade from 268th Street, along Fraser Highway to the cenotaph in front of the Royal Canadian Legion’s Branch #265, explained secretary-manager Madeline Roach.
“The Aldergrove community has always been very present for our Remembrance Day services,” Roach added, noting upwards of 1,500 people attended last year.
The annual service at the cenotaph begins at 10:50 a.m., and will include speeches, two minutes of silence at 11 a.m., a Fraser Blues flyby, and the laying of some 70 wreaths – many offered in memory of veterans lost.
“It seems to get larger every year,” Roach said of the crowd.
“They want to come and pay tribute,” she added, impressed to see its not just veterans and their families but hundreds from younger generations showing thanks for the sacrifices made by the community’s veterans.
After the ceremony, the public is invited to stick around. Scouts and cadets are serving up hotdogs and hot chocolate in the legion hall for kids, while a couple hundred are expected to gather in the legion for a potluck lunch, short concerts by the South Fraser Pipes & Drums and the Fraser Valley Community Winds (former Abbotsford Concert Band), and then a show by Two of A Kind at 3 p.m.
MORE REMEMBRANCE DAY STORIES:
- Remembrance Day: Fort Langley National Historic Site Why Wear a Poppy campaign
- Remembrance Day: Veteran speaks to youth about his war experiences
- Fort Langley ceremony started with a knock on the door
- Remembrance Day Fort Langley service preview