Students embrace sacrifice for freedom

Calgary business leader and philanthropist Murray McCann is touched each year by a gesture performed by students from Calgary’s St. Mary’s University in remembrance of those who gave their lives for the freedom they now enjoy.

It’s all part of The Field of Crosses Memorial Project McCann launched in 2008 along Memorial Drive.

“When they are taking the lighted candle torch to the cross, they genuflect in front of the cross and put the candle down,” said McCann, who turns 85 next month. “They’ve got the name of the soldier written on the horizontal bar of the cross. They each stand up, put their hand over their heart, and say, ‘Rest in peace Bill Smith, for our land is free. Thank you.’ Every year, the name of every soldier in that field is called out loud.”

McCann is full of praise and gratitude for the students and faculty of St. Mary’s University, who have emerged as consequential contributors in recent years to The Field of Crosses Memorial Project.

“Every year they come out and light up the candles for over 3,620 crosses we put up the night of Nov. 10, the eve before Remembrance Day, and they burn all night,” said the Ottawa, Ont., product. “We turn off all the lights so that the whole five-acre cemetery is lit by candlelight. It goes viral every year. We get comments from all over the world.”

Each of the crosses is erected in tribute to individual soldiers from southern Alberta who made the ultimate sacrifice in past conflicts defending the freedom of Canadians.

Before sunrise on Remembrance Day, the team returns to the field to remove the candles from the field in preparation for the live televised ceremony that starts at 10:10 a.m. 

Dr. Sinda Vanderpool participated in this initiative for the first time a year ago, a few months after becoming the president and vice-chancellor of St. Mary’s University. She described the experience as “incredible.”

“It is done on such a scale that you have to be there and experience it to really understand it,” said Vanderpool. “It is an incredibly moving experience. I think it is important that as human beings we recognize that we’re connected to people who have gone before us. In our Catholic faith, we believe that in a variety of ways. The fact that we are here as citizens living under a constitution and a democracy is because of soldiers, like the ones we are honouring, who have given their lives.”

In 2022, over 40 members of St. Mary’s lit candles. A similar number of volunteers is anticipated for this year.

McCann visited St. Mary’s on Oct. 27 to have lunch with students and faculty and share the story behind how the memorial came to be over 15 years ago.

He was driving in the Blue Ridge Mountains in Georgia, where he lives for part of the year. He was singing along to Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson’s “Mammas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys” country classic playing on the radio.

“Coming up the hill, just before the turn into Menlo, I saw three crosses,” recalled McCann. “My immediate thought was it was a memorial to some people who perhaps died in a bad accident. But then I turned and saw 20 more crosses — then I was really confused. I slowed down and noticed that on the horizontal bar of the cross were names and other information such as year of birth, the year they lost their life and their military status. I realized that these crosses were for soldiers who lost their lives from this little (city) of Menlo.

“Then I realized it was Memorial Day. I became completely overwrought. I had to pull over to the side of the road. I then just broke down. Never before have I realized how many people had died for my freedom, and I had this great life. I just sat there. I’m not sure if it was five minutes or 25 minutes, but I just sobbed. I always bought a poppy in remembrance, but other than that I did nothing.”

He described this experience as a moment of epiphany. The entrepreneur would return to his home in Rome, Georgia, later that day to tell his family and friends of how witnessing these rows of crosses along the highway deeply touched him.

One week later, McCann returned to Calgary with a determination to provide the people of southern Alberta the opportunity to be transformed and “gain an appreciation for all we have and the high price we paid for it.”

With key support from his friend George Bittman, the former head of the Calgary Poppy Fund who passed away in 2011, McCann established The Field of Crosses Memorial.

For the first 10 years, McCann privately funded the memorial. In 2019, he transformed this labour of love into a registered charity so that it can outlive him.

The high level of commitment from young adults, such as the students from St. Mary’s, provides encouragement that the memorial will have staying power. Also promising is the engagement from public and Catholic elementary and secondary schools. Students have written biographies about the soldiers with tribute crosses, and they visit the field to participate in the “Hot Chocolate at The Crosses” program, which is offered in partnership with the non-profit Valour Canada. This guided tour introduces students to the heroes of Vimy Ridge and lets them handle historical war artifacts.

McCann also established the Homes For Heroes Foundation, which has built urban villages to house homeless veterans in Calgary. The organization also offers different integration services to help each soldier in their transition back into civilian life.