During its annual Remembrance Day assembly, students at Kings County Academy in Kentville took part in an act known as Liberation 75.
In 2020, the Netherlands will celebrate its 75th anniversary of liberation. The goal is to cover Canada in 1.1 million Liberation75 Tulips in honour of the 1.1 million Canadians who served during the Second World War.
During the assembly, Grade 8 student Xander Holmes read that in the final months of the Second World War, Canadian forces were given the important and deadly task of liberating the Netherlands from Nazi occupation. The First Canadian Army fought German forces and cleared northern and western Netherlands of Germans, allowing food and other relief to reach millions of desperate people.
“More than 7,600 Canadian soldiers, sailors and airmen died fighting in the Netherlands, and today Canada is fondly remembered by the Dutch for ending their oppression under the Nazis,” Holmes told the students.
Every year since the war, the Netherlands has sent thousands of tulips to Ottawa in appreciation for Canada’s sacrifice and for providing safe harbour to the Dutch royal family, which lived in exile in Canada during the war, read Holmes.
This year, 1.1 million tulips will be planted across the country.
Henk van der Zwan, ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to Canada, sent a letter to the school earlier in June indicating that KCA was to be one of 1,100 schools selected for the project, says teacher Eileen Hiltz, who coordinated the event.
In order to have the tulips blooming in time for the Liberation 75 event, the bulbs must be planted this fall.
During the Remembrance Day assembly, two students from every class were selected to plant these commemorative bulbs. Because of bad weather, they were planted in a garden tote, but will soon be transplanted into the school gardens, located beneath the flagpole at the front of the school.
“Everyone will be able to enjoy the orange crown-shaped tulips next spring,” said Holmes.
The planted bulbs will complement the KCA school gardens which have been under renovation since the sprint. Besides the commemorative tulip beds, there will also be a butterfly garden, and an a meditative-reflective area for students.
