This black stone monument is dedicated to the memory of Sergeant Shawn Allen Eades, CD, member of 1 Combat Engineer Regiment, and former student at Westwood Public School, who was killed in action on August 20, 2008 in the Zahri District of Afghanistan.
Excerpt from an article in the Hamilton Spectator, by Stacey Escott, 25 September, 2011:
"Fallen Hamilton soldier Shawn Allen Eades’ wife and two young daughters missed the connecting flight that would get them to his memorial ceremony last week (Friday 23 Sep 11).
The family lives in Edmonton and had to catch a plane from Winnipeg that would fly them to Hamilton. With just half an hour to get in and out of the airport, the plane left without them. Lisa pleaded with airport authorities, and after hearing her story, the pilot turned the plane around and came back for them. The people already on board clapped as Lisa and her daughters Breanna, 10, and Niya, 7, were seated.
They were joined by family and friends, soldiers, teachers, students and politicians as close to 200 people at Westwood Public School remembered the fallen soldier Friday afternoon. Eades was killed on Aug. 20, 2008, while on duty in Afghanistan. He was two weeks away from coming home after his third rotation.
The ceremony took place in the school gymnasium at Westwood where Shawn was a student from grades 3-6 in the ’80s. Students sat patiently as they waited to stand up and sing Canadian Heroes. After the stone was unveiled in the Westwood schoolyard, Breanna and Niya lit the lanterns as the rest of the family laid red roses in front of it."
