Berkley's ANZAC Service

A few weeks ago my Class set up our own ANZAC service. About a month ago we were given 30 crosses to represent 30 soldiers around our area who gave the ultimate sacrifice fighting in war. Everyone in my class did their part to help to set up our service; giving out roles to hosts, readers to read out the ode and our singers to start off our National Anthem and our hymn. We even had someone sharing about their ancestor who fought in the war and returned but he had nightmares of the war till the day he passed away.

Lots of people also helped to make the crosses. There was a lot of precision put into this as each cross had to be the exact replica of the others. After two days our crosses were finally finished and it was time to make our Field of Remembrance. We had to measure how far apart each cross was from the back and side on. We finished our Field and started on our speeches. By the end of the day everything was prepared for our ANZAC service the next day and we didn't think anything could go wrong.

However... The next day I arrived on the bus to find some of my classmates picking up the crosses from our field of remembrance. I raced to class; my curiosity getting the best of me only to find some drunk 17 year-old boys had vandalized our crosses by kicking them over and had left them in a heap on the ground. My class couldn't believe how someone could choose to do this. After all it was hallowed ground. Our crosses weren't damaged too bad but some still had chips and cracks in them which we did our best to fix an hour before our service. A group of about 6 people including me stayed behind from our Tech Art to make the Field of Remembrance again. We did the best we could to make up for what these two boys had done to the crosses.

Making our Field of Remembrance

Next Block...
Now was finally the time for our ANZAC service. We started by welcoming our guests to our ceremony and then we sung the National Anthem. Next we had Rose sharing about her ancestor, then a minute of silence and after that the ode, the reveille and our hymn. 

I think overall our ANZAC service was a success we all rose above the example of the 17 year old boys and we were able to deliver a clear and heart warming message to those who attended our service and our speakers did a fabulous job. 

The Finished Product

We were written about in newspaper articles . Here is a link to this http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/68030286/teen-arrested-over-anzac-cross-vandalism

We were also in the Waikato Times and when the RSA found out they were rather emotional. They decided to come to our school to replace our crosses. When my class found out we were very excited.

When they Came:

We welcomed them in by singing Toia ( a maori hymn ) and then the National Anthem.

Mr Gibson talked to us about the war and compared the drunk 17 year old to 17-year-old Private Persson, believed to be the youngest Kiwi to die at Gallipoli. He referred to the person who committed the vandalism as an "idiot" and Private Persson a "Hero".

Mr Gibson and Mr Francis also gave us some gifts including ANZAC Warriors tee-shirt 4 Anzac tee-shirts a scarf for our teacher and some badges.

This was also written about here:

http://www.stuff.co.nz/waikato-times/news/68317532/trust-replaces-hamilton-schools-vandalised-anzac-crosses

Thank you to Brooke for the photos this is her blog here: http://brookeroom10.blogspot.co.nz/