While most of Monday's Remembrance Day events will take place at the Legion on Hamilton Street, one Waterdown man wants to remind everyone of the village's past celebrations.
Garth Wetherall has been setting up a display outside of Memorial Hall since 2021, to honour veterans and the place where Waterdown residents used gather on Nov. 11.
"They do everything at the Legion now, but where it originally started was the Memorial Hall. That's why it's called the Memorial Hall," Wetherall said.
Before the Waterdown Legion was built on Hamilton Street, the annual ceremony typically took place at Memorial Hall, on Dundas Street East. Wetherall said Waterdown used to have a parade as part of Remembrance Day as well. The hall itself, now used by the the Waterdown Lions and Village Theatre, was built in 1922 to commemorate those who served in the First World War. On the top of the building, passersby can read "Memorial Hall — 1914-1918", which signifies the duration of the conflict.
Two plaques at the front of Memorial Hall commemorate those lost in both the First and Second World Wars.
Wetherall said he comes from a family of servicemen and is a veteran himself.
"I grew up knowing everybody that was left over from World War One and then all my dad's friends," he said.
During the COVID-19 lockdowns, he was inspired to revisit Waterdown's history and set up a display at Memorial Hall. This year the display features a wooden cut-out of a soldier which Wetherall made himself, and the shrubs in front of Memorial Hall have been covered with netting laced with poppies.
Some of the poppies, he said, were donated by the Waterdown Legion and Canada Post. Others were created out of papier mache by Waterdown elementary students in past years, and coated with a sealing spray.
Waterdown grade school students have also left painted rocks at the site, in honour of Remembrance Day.
This is the fourth year Wetherall has put out the display. He says next year, for the fifth anniversary, he wants to do something special.
"I want to step it up even further. I'm dreaming how to do that," he said.
