Voice of Byron and KWIMABB regular, Syl Reid, has called for a renewal of the Bay’s traditional ANZAC Day book laying tradition.
Syl says, “The long-time tradition of Byron Bay’s sporting and service clubs placing a book or books at the Memorial gates on ANZAC Day in lieu of floral wreaths has noticeably decreased in numbers over the last few years.
The original idea was to help the various schools increase their students’s knowledge and awareness of our country’s military history and involvement by placing books on that subject at the gates during the 11 o’clock Commemorative Service to be distributed among the various school libraries.
As this awareness grew, the themes of these donations changed to include topics such as the ocean, our country’s history and cultural subjects.
Sadly these numbers are now falling off due, probably, to changes in these organization’s committees and a lack of awareness that this opportunity does indeed exist.
With the increase of population in this area, one would think that this downward trend would be the reverse.
Hopefully those that read this will have an increased awareness of the situation and rally behind the cause to supplement our schools reference stocks with an annual gesture not only of Remembrance but community support of our educators and their facilities.
Those that need more information and or want to be included in this worthwhile event ask asked to contact the RSL Sub-Branch secretary via byronbayrslnsw@bigpond.com.