By RUSSELL BENNETT
AGE has certainly not wearied the four-year-olds at Emerald Preschool who were given a special lesson on the significance of Remembrance Day yesterday (Monday).
The town’s main shopping precinct – Kilvington Drive – was brought to a standstill at 11am with local shop owners and patrons standing to attention side-by-side in along the road verge in a spine-tingling scene as the Last Post played.
Emerald RSL president Peter Maloney spoke of the significance of Remembrance Day on both the national and local scale, with 11am on 11 November 2013 marking 95 years since guns fell silent to mark the end of World War I.
Emerald police sergeant Fiona Tolmie and her officers temporarily stopped traffic at the Kilvington Drive roundabout during the minute’s silence, with some local motorists even turning off their engines in a mark of respect.
Local CFA captain Paul Yandle and his brigade mates sounded the siren, reigniting a famous local tradition.
Outgoing Cardinia Shire Council mayor Brett Owen joined members of the RSL and the Emerald Primary School community to lay wreaths to pay their respects and remember those who fought for their nation’s freedom.
Following the brief, yet moving, ceremony at the cenotaph just outside the Commonwealth Bank, Mr Maloney, Sgt Tolmie and Cr Owen headed to Emerald Preschool to present poppies to the four-year-old students.
While some were a little confused as to just what sort of medals their grandparents had been awarded, there was no confusion when it came to the significance of the moment – fittingly more than 20 youngsters stood perfectly still in the middle of their recess break as the Last Post played.
