Captain (Ret’d) Rodney Holowaty, CD, a career educator and member of The Royal Canadian Legion, is nominated for his work honouring and commemorating his fellow Veterans.
As a member of the RCL, he has held several leadership positions and is currently First Vice President of Branch #63 Saskatoon. He is involved in several committees including the organizing committee for the annual Remembrance Day service. He is also part of the Poppy Campaign in Saskatoon.
As an educator, he has made it his priority to instill an appreciation and understanding of the importance of Remembrance in his students. He engages students in the RCL’s annual poster, poem and essay contests. He mentors the grade 11 students as they take on the planning of the school’s Remembrance Day ceremony. Every year, with the help of Army cadets and a group of RCL volunteers, he places crosses on Veterans’ graves a week ahead of the annual service. He has also volunteered as a chaperone with Encounters with Canada during their annual Remembrance-themed week in Ottawa.
He engaged his students in a project to research the names of local war dead listed on the Kipling cenotaph. Students wrote biographies of those who died in the First and Second World Wars. Students were then encouraged to read these biographies at Remembrance Day ceremonies in their community.