WorldStrides Canada Facilitating VE Day 80 Tour in the Netherlands to Honour Fallen Canadian Soldiers

Students, teachers from 34 high schools across Canada will visit Bergen-op-Zoom Canadian War Cemetery, carry “Torch of Remembrance” in Commemoration Ceremony

/EIN News/ -- TORONTO, April 17, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- To mark the 80^th anniversary of Victory in Europe (VE) Day, WorldStrides, a global provider of educational student travel and experiential learning, is facilitating a commemoration tour to the Netherlands for over 1,000 Canadian students, teachers and staff. To honour the legacy of those who died in World War II, many schools have adopted one of the 968 Canadian soldiers buried in Bergen-op-Zoom Canadian War Cemetery.

In a commemoration ceremony on May 4, students will participate in a 1.5-hour silent march carrying the Commonwealth War Graves Commission’s “Torch of Remembrance” to the cemetery. Each student will alternate carrying the torch for 80 steps, symbolizing each year since the liberation of the Netherlands. Students will carry a Peace Tower Flag—which was flown on the Canadian Parliamentary Peace Tower on January 19, 2019, the 76^th birthday of Princess Margriet of the Netherlands—along with signs bearing the names of Canadian communities that lost a soldier in the Battle of the Scheldt.

At the completion of the march, students will present to the City of Bergen op Zoom the Peace Tower Flag and a time capsule, with submissions from each of the attending high schools, which will be opened on the 100^th anniversary of VE Day. Local Dutch students will exchange a Netherlands Flag to complete their pledge for Canadian students to return every five years.

“This trip is five years in the making, and I am incredibly proud to be part of an educational program that helps students understand and experience their country’s history and how it fits into our shared world history,” said David Robinson, History program consultant, WorldStrides Canada. “Each student is completing a solider project and has spent time before the trip learning about their soldier, where they fought, and their families—and it’s a grand way to impart the significance of this history, and why we must not forget.”

The 10-day tour May 1—10 will feature student visits to the Overloon War Musuem, Groesbeek, Anne Frank House, concentration camps, Menin Gate, Beaumont-Hamel, Passchendaele, Vimy Ridge, Juno Beach, Paris and conclude in Amsterdam.

“Visits to Commonwealth War Graves cemeteries and memorials ensure that we are actively engaging new generations with the history of the world wars, inspiring them to understand the importance of what other Canadian generations did, ” said Simon Bendry, Director of Education, Engagement and Volunteering, Commonwealth War Graves Commission. “When they return home, we hope that they will pass these stories onto others, ensuring that we continue to remember.”

As part of the experience, WorldStrides Canada is teaming up with Legion Magazine, which since 1926 has been publishing articles on Canadian military history and veteran affairs, for a writing challenge in which students upon returning from the trip share their stories of how it impacted them and what it meant to participate in the anniversary of VE Day.

Legion Magazine will publish the top student submissions on their website, and select works may be published in a future edition of the print magazine.

For more information about WorldStrides Canada and to learn about upcoming Canadian history tours, visit https://www.explorica.ca/canadian-history.aspx.

About WorldStrides

WorldStrides is the global leader in educational travel and experiential learning. The company was founded in 1967 to provide middle school travel programs to Washington, D.C. and has grown to provide a wide range of programs for more than 550,000 students annually to over 100 countries around the world. WorldStrides offers experiential learning programs in educational travel, performing arts, language immersion, career exploration, service-learning, study abroad, and sports. Each of these experiences helps students to see beyond the classroom and to see the world – and themselves – in new ways.

For questions, please contact:

Mary Callas, WorldStrides maryca@worldstrides.com

Edward Ruddy, Sloane PR ERuddy@sloanepr.com