By Kathryn Stocks
For Remembrance Day this year, Centennial resident Sid Levangie has been planning a special project. He ordered 3’x5’ Remembrance flags online and sold them for $10 to his neighbours in the Holmcrest, Paulander, Cherryhill, Rodarick neighbourhood. Out of the 237 homes there, he has sold flags to almost half of them.
He is asking residents to put the flags up on their lawns two weeks prior to Remembrance Day and take them down by noon on November 12. These are the same rules that the Legion has for wearing poppies. Sid said CP24 has promised they’ll come to the area with a film crew when they’re up. He wants people to put the flags up between two sticks so passersby will be able to see the whole banner even when it’s not windy.
There are four styles of flag: one has a Lancaster bomber being escorted by four Spitfires; another has a battleship with a bugler; the third has a single soldier standing in front of a cross on the ground; and the fourth has seven soldiers walking across a field. All have the words Lest We Forget on them along with a poppy or poppies.
If someone gives Sid an amount more than the price of the flag, he gives the extra to Branch 258 of the Royal Canadian Legion. “This isn’t about making money,” he said. “It’s about having people pay homage to Remembrance Day.”
Last year he ordered two special banners to commemorate his father and his wife’s former husband who both served in World War II. He put them on his garage door along with a wreath. This year he saw the Lest We Forget flags online and started ordering them in February.
Sid has a family history of service. His grandfather served in World War I and was at Vimy Ridge; his father and an uncle served in Europe in World War II; his brother was in the RCMP and he served outside of Canada teaching the Haitian police for 22 months in the early ’80s; and his nephew served as a military police officer in Afghanistan and is now a sergeant in the Barrie Police Department.
Sid was in the Armed Forces for a short period of time, then he joined the RCMP for 17 years. Now he’s in the Colour Guard at Branch 258 of the Royal Canadian Legion in Highland Creek.
The Colour Guard is a special organization made up of Legion members. “Our function is to represent the Legion and the military in paying tribute to members of the Canadian military who have served Canada,” he said. The Colour Guard will be at the Remembrance Day ceremony at Branch 258 on November 11.
Sid will be also selling poppies for the two weeks preceding Remembrance Day at the plaza at Eglinton Ave. and Markham Rd. He has received two awards for putting out poppies. Last year he collected $7,642 for the Legion; he was there every day except one. This year he’ll be at the Metro store from 10 a.m. until 6 p.m. every day from October 28 to November 10. He’s hoping to break last year’s record.