Values and Valued Service

Values and Valued Service: Lakefield’s Military Heritage

 

In Chapel on Monday morning, Mr. Boyko invited students to consider the ghosts among them. He explained that since 1924, Lakefield College School students have been attending morning services on that spot in the first and current chapel and so the spirits and spirit of all was among them. Three years ago, he explained, a group of alum who graduated in the 1950s and 1960s formed a committee with the intention of having current and future students hear those ghosts a little clearer.

 

The group undertook a project to commemorate the military heritage of the school and to better remember the 420 Lakefield alumni who have served in the military and the 52 who died in that service. Led by Tony Pullen ‘63, Hugh MacDonald ‘55, and Jim DeWolf ‘58, they gathered stories and conducted research. Mr. Boyko worked with their research to write a short book entitled Values and Valued Service. It outlines the military history of the school, including the army and naval cadet corps, to which, until 1970, all students belonged. It tells the story of many of the alumni who served and died by contextualizing their service in terms of world events and the evolution of the school. Values and Valued Service can be found at the school’s website at lcs.on.ca/military.

 

Grove alumnus Cody McMahon ‘12 worked in the school’s archives this past summer, under Mr. Boyko’s direction, to create three display boards. One of which details Lakefield’s Naval Legacy. It tells of the school’s Naval Cadet program and lists the impressive number of admirals and other high ranking naval officers who were associated with the school. Two other boards are dedicated to those who lost their lives by listing each with a photograph and paragraph telling of the man’s time at the school, military service and unfortunate death.

 

Mr. Boyko ended his chapel talk by challenging students to read and reflect upon two brief biographies a day. That would allow each to be read by Christmas. If they did so, he explained, they might better understand the message of the chapel’s whispering ghosts. Their message, he said, is this: “In the final analysis, the value of your life, will be measured by the value you bring to the lives of others.”

 

The next morning, 13 members of the committee attended and were moved by the Remembrance Day ceremony. They then repaired to the Narthex where the three display boards were officially dedicated. Committee members pledged to remain dedicated to the ongoing project. More stories will be collected. It is hoped that more elements will be added and rendered more interactive and accessible online. The hope of all involved is that those who served and those who made the ultimate sacrifice will be remembered not just every November 11 but always. And, more importantly, in remembering, students will perhaps thoughtfully consider the values that motivated the 420 alumni to serve; the same values upon which the school is based, and upon which it rests. They are the values being whispered every morning by the chapel’s ghosts.