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IQALUIT
When Shannon Barkley commemorates Remembrance Day this year, she will be doing so close to the site where her great-great-grandfather died for Canada.

Shannon Barkley, chaperon Paul Bychok, Anika Bychok, Kira Bychok, and teacher Renata Solski are travelling through Europe this week, and will be in Vimy for Remembrance Day. Twelve Inuksuk School students are taking the trip. - Casey Lessard/NNSL photo

"He died in (the Third Battle of) Ypres," Barkley says of W.H. Barkley, who died in 1917 near Passchendaele. She and 11 other Inuksuk High School students will visit the Menin Gate memorial that bears her great-great-grandfather's name, as well as the names of many other Canadians who died during that battle, during a World Wars tour through Europe that started Nov. 5.

"All of (her dad's) family are very envious of Shannon because no one from the family has had an opportunity to go over and see the memorial," mom Shona Barkley said. "Her dad's in the air force, her uncle's in the navy. Grandfather was in the army, so there's a lot of military connections there."

As a tribute to the sacrifice Barkley made during the First World War, all of his first-born male descendents have been named after him, Shannon said.

"He died when he was 35, which for me is really young, but apparently it wasn't young for back then," she said.

Social studies teacher Renata Solski is leading the trip.

"We chose the History of the World Wars tour because we do themes that look at the survival of the human spirit," Solski said, "and how people make it through situations we look at and think are so atrocious that we can't even imagine."

The lessons learned from those who survived is applied to the students' lives, she said.

"We study Elie Wiesel, who wrote Night. He always says 'my pain isn't greater than yours'. What Wiesel is saying is, 'yes, the Holocaust was atrocious for me, but that was the pain I went through' and if you have pain, for example if you're an alcoholic or bulimic, or if your parents are splitting up, we're going to validate that pain.

"It was a painful time," she said, "and we look at how these people suffered and we try to learn from that."

Anika Bychok, her sister Kira and father Paul are all going on the trip. Anika and Kira's great-grandfather on their mother's side was gassed near Ypres in the First World War, but survived and returned home.

"His son, my grandfather, was in the RCAF (Royal Canadian Air Force) and ready to go to battle in the Second World War, but, fortunately, the war ended before he could go," Anika said. "My dad has been in the Black Watch and I'm in cadets."

Despite her father's encouragement to read books about the World Wars, the 15-year-old hasn't found the time. That's why she's looking forward to learning the history on-site.

"My dad always tells me I live in a bubble, so this will be a bubble-bursting experience. I'm going to see what these people went through. It should be very eye-opening."

It's an expensive tour, most of which is funded by the students and their families themselves. The Royal Canadian Legion contributed $4,000 to offset the costs of the nine-day trip, which starts Nov. 5 and takes the group through Berlin, Amsterdam, war sites in Holland, Belgium, and France (including Vimy and Juno Beach), and ends in Paris. It's a whirlwind trip, but hopefully the students will bring home a new appreciation for the lessons of war.

"When we study war, we can learn from the past," Solski said. "That helps us in the present, and we can prepare for the future."

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