By Merle Exit
November 11, 1918, marks the 100th anniversary of the end of the Great War. To commemorate the historical event, Friends of Maple Grove, along with Boots and Saddles Productions, are sponsoring the “1918 WWI Cavalry comes to Maple Grove” event on Sunday.
The encampment of the WWI living historians will be part of the free event, set for April 29 from 10:30 am to 3 p.m., where you can meet the horses, saddled and equipped for what was known as the Great War.
“Since we have found a number of [World War I] veterans buried at Maple Grove, we decided to honor this milestone event in history and honor our veterans,” historian Carl Ballenas said. “We started with a, 1914 Tea (Start of the Great War was July 28, 1914) featuring music of the time period before the coming of war.”
But that’s not all. Maple Grove, located at 83-15 Kew Gardens Rd., has more events planned to commemorate WWI throughout the year.
“Our Second Saturday Walking Tour (of each month) is now making more mention of the veterans,” Ballenas said. “For Memorial Day we will honor the veterans with a service on May 26. The musical choral group, Schola Sine Nominae, will do a concert at 7 p.m. at the center to honor the veterans and soldiers.”
The center will host a photo exhibit and lecture led by Jo-Anne Raskin — a board member at Friends of Maple Grove — Sept. 15 from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. In November, there will be an armistice concert. The final event of the year honoring World War I will include a film viewing of the 2005 movie, “Joyeux Noel,” according to Ballenas.
As a Richmond Hill historian, Ballenas has made it his mission to find the biography of each soldier whose name appears on the Buddy Monument in Forest Park.
“It was a huge undertaking but we have two huge binders with photos and newspaper articles,” he said. “We discovered that a few of them are buried at Maple Grove Cemetery, including Maj. Charles Baird, who died in 1918; George Montgomery Coleman, who died aboard the Gypsum Queen in a rescue attempt off the coast of France; and Maj. Charles Cook, who was also a noted archeologist. This work on these soldiers will be part of the WWI display in September.”
For further information, call (347) 878-6614.
