SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Organizers of this year's Remembrance Day activities are excited about a new event to honour the lives of veterans that have passed on by placing a candle on each of the 64 graves at Lakeview Cemetery.

This year, cadets in Yellowknife raised more than $10,000 in the annual poppy drive. Air cadets Sgt. Mitchell Snyde, left, Sgt. Curtis Kenny and army cadet Master Cpl. Harrison Baile hand out poppies on 48 Street, Oct 30. - Adrian Lysenko/NNSL photo

The Field of Honour ceremony will take place at the cemetery tonight at 7 p.m, said Francine Clouston, first vice-president of the Royal Canadian Legion branch in Yellowknife. Four cadets - Shannon Jennings, Drake Saunders, Russ Lovell and Ken Tecsy will light and place a candle that will burn for 48 hours on each of the graves.

"It's sad to say that our list of members of veterans on the back of our programs gets longer all the time," she said.

Besides herself, officers and the cadets, Clouston expects family members and their children to also attend the ceremony, which will last about one hour.

The rest of the Remembrance Day activities will be the same as years past. At 7 p.m. tonight there will be the 12-hour vigil at the Cenotaph at city hall. Clouston said the inclusion of cadets in the vigil is an "integral part" of the overall ceremony.

"That's how the next generation learns as they go along as to why they are (participating)," she said.

Cadets will go to the Yellowknife Royal Canadian Legion for breakfast tomorrow morning before marching in the parade, which starts at 10 a.m. on Franklin Avenue opposite the legion.

The parade is scheduled to move up Franklin Avenue to 53 Street and turn right onto Veterans Memorial Drive and proceed up to the Cenotaph at city hall for a wreath laying ceremony at 10:15 a.m. After the ceremony, the parade continues to St. Patrick High School by turning right onto 48 Street from Veterans Memorial Drive, and then left on 51 Avenue. The Remembrance Day ceremony begins in the school's gymnasium at 10:55 a.m. At 11:11 a.m. the customary moment of silence will take place. Once the ceremony is over, the legion will be hosting various activities throughout the day.

This is a busy time for the approximately 70 air and army cadets in Yellowknife. Cadets will meet at city hall tonight to receive their instructions, said Cpt. Pierre McCann, commanding officer for the Royal Canadian Army Cadets Corps in Yellowknife. Once receiving their instructions, they will be deployed in groups to various events in Yellowknife this evening under the operation name "Valiant Hero." Besides the Field of Honour and the 12-hour vigil, cadets will also be at St. Patrick High School the night before to begin preparing the gymnasium for the ceremony.

The cadets have been preparing for Remembrance Day for about six weeks, said McCann, including the two Saturdays - Oct. 30 and Nov. 6 - for the annual poppy drive. McCann said this is the most successful poppy drive he's seen, raising a total of $10,100.

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