By Jenn Watt

Published April 10 2018

The annual youth awards is a way for the Haliburton Legion branch to honour “the next generation of writers artists and poets” branch 129 president Paul Sisson told the audience on Friday evening for the annual awards ceremony.

The event recognized local students whose Remembrance Day posters essays and poems had achieved top placement locally at zone and district levels of competition.

Standing in front of the Legion crest created by Billy Pickard a Second World War veteran with the Canadian Women’s Army Corps youth education chair Anthony Crofts honoured the women who served Canada. Pickard died in February in her 97th year.

Crofts told the audience about women’s contribution to war efforts including working on farms airfields as “lumberjills” and in the armed forces.

The Youth Education Awards Night is one of the many programs sponsored by the Legion branch which also funds poppies for students the county track and field meet scholarships and bursaries at the high school and makes donations to local charities and non-profits that help children.

Awards were given for first second and third place entries. Those that received first place went on to the zone level. Those that placed first at the zone level went on to the district level. Jessica Byers’s first-place black and white poster went on to the provincial level. Images of the winning entries can be found on the Legion’s website: www.haliburtonlegion.com/youth.