The Bridgewater Fire Department Band has accepted a prestigious invitation to play at the Menin Gate war memorial in Ypres, Belgium. Captain Wendell Eisener says the group is honoured and excited to represent Bridgewater overseas.
“This is about the highest honour that any band in the British Commonwealth can receive,” he says.
Eisener says the invitation arose as a result of the band’s partnership with a British fire service band which plays at the location every few years. He says Ypres holds a nightly service in which the name of a Commonwealth soldier who died in World War I is read aloud.
“The Last Post sounds, there’s always a band or a choir there …I’m not quite sure how we managed, but we received an invitation to play at one of these services,” he says.
Eisener made an announcement on the band’s Facebook page inviting the community to attend a Christmas concert and silent auction this weekend. The post invites people to “bring your friends and your neighbours, and your neighbours’ friends, too!”
Eisener says they’re hoping to raise part of the sixty thousand dollars needed to cover the 2020 trip.
“Even more than peoples’ financial contributions, if we just simply were able to play to a full house, that would mean more to the band than the remuneration for doing the concert,” he says.
The concert takes place Sunday at 3:00pm, at Saint John’s Anglican Church in Lunenburg.
Contributed photo.
Story by Erin MacInnis
Twitter: @ErinEMacInnis
