Collaborating with Thomega Entertainment's Canada Remembers DVD Commemorative School Project

DriverWorks Ink is proud to collaborate with Thomega Entertainment Canada Remembers Documentaries to share stories of service and sacrifice of Canadian War Veterans. 

Endorsed by the Royal Canadian Legion’s National Poppy and Remembrance Committee for use of Poppy Funds, the Canada Remembers Commemorative School Project invites Royal Canadian Legions across Canada as well as other organizations to purchase the set of 13 educational documentary DVDs for use in schools in their regions. Each order will also receive one complimentary copy of the inspiring new book Crash Harrison: Tales of a Bomber Pilot Who Defied Death by Deana J. Driver.

The book contains page after page of details about Canada’s involvement in the Second World War and Reg Harrison’s experiences, as well as Fun Facts about Reg “Crash” Harrison, a Timeline of Events, and Helpful Resources. The Teacher's Guide that accompanies the Canada Remembers DVD series has been updated to include a list of questions about this book, which educators may use to further encourage learning and discussion. 

Five of the 13 Canada Remembers documentaries filmed to date by Thomega Entertainment include interviews with 101-year-old Reginald "Crash" Harrison, the subject of this new book. Crash Harrison has been featured in: Canada Remembers A Veterans Reunion 2000, Canada Remembers It’s Time to Say Thanks 2005, Canada Remembers Festival for Heroes 2011, Canada Remembers Our Heroes The Liberators 2022, and Canada Remembers Our Heroes Service and Sacrifice 2023. Another documentary featuring Reg Harrison is planned for release in 2024.

Reg Harrison is one of Canada's last surviving Halifax and Lancaster bomber pilots from the Second World War. He was given the nickname "Crash" in 1944 after surviving the second of what would end up being four aircraft crashes - none of which were his fault - while completing 19 missions as a Royal Canadian Air Force bomber pilot in England. The Crash Harrison book details Reg's life story - told in his own words - from his early years on a farm southwest of Melville, Saskatchewan through his wartime adventures and life after the war up to the present day. At 101 years of age, Reg "Crash" Harrison continues to honour and remember the men and women who served in Canada's military, noting that those who did not come home from war are the real heroes and should never be forgotten.

Thomega Entertainment initiated the Canada Remembers Commemorative School Project to share the message of the significant service and sacrifices of so many. Their program has reached over 15,500 schools, libraries, and related organizations nationwide. The primary goal is to give as many students as possible access to over 10 hours of engaging, informative, historical programming, which includes a Teacher's Guide that brings attention to the fact that freedom in this country did not come free. The Teacher's Guide has been updated to include information and classroom exercises related to the Crash Harrison book, which educators may use to further encourage learning and discussion.

Your Royal Canadian Legion Branch and other organizations are invited to order sets of these educational documentary DVDs here.

DriverWorks Ink is grateful to Creative Saskatchewan for book publishing production funding.

Reconnecting with a special friend and unique story in Brandon MB

As an author and book publisher, I am often asked, "Where do you get your stories from?"

Sometimes, I find the stories or book subjects by researching and asking questions, the way I did when I was a freelance journalist writing for various Canadian newspapers and magazines.

Sometimes, the stories walk into my line of vision or hearing, as was the case when my daughter Lisa told me about the indomitable Dionne Warner, the seven-time cancer survivor who was about to speak at a Relay for Life rally in Regina in July 2011 (which made me think Dionne's story was worthy of a great book, which I would go on to write and publish - Never Leave Your Wingman).

Sometimes, as in the case of the book I wrote about former Royal Canadian Navy man John Hanlon of Brandon, Manitoba, the story comes to me through a friend of a friend.

In about 2011, a dear friend of mine, Dexter van Dyke, suggested that he knew of a story that his friend, Elaine Rounds of Brandon, had told him about an elderly man who did something wonderful during the Second World War. 

In November 1944, John Hanlon was a wireless operator on the HMCS Royalmount, which was docked in St. John's, Newfoundland at the time. John knew their convoy would be at sea on Christmas Day, so he and a couple crewmates walked up a hill in St. John's Harbour and cut down some evergreens. John hid those trees in the belly of his ship and pulled them out weeks later, on Christmas morning, in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean - surprising his crewmates as well as some English children who were on another ship in that convoy, coming to a safe home in Canada. John's forward-thinking made that wartime Christmas a very memorable day for many people for decades to come.

John had been telling this Christmas 1944 story to his children, grandchildren, his United Church community, and Royal Canadian Legion members at Christmastime for decades after the Second World War ended.

Elaine had told Dexter about the story. Then Dexter told me. We all knew it would make a great book. So I asked Dexter to connect me with Elaine and, thus, John Hanlon.

I met Elaine Rounds in Brandon in May 2012, based only on an introduction via Dexter. Elaine became an instant friend and we have spoken and seen each other several times in the years since then. That first day, she took me and my husband Al to the care home in which John Hanlon was a resident. John's wife Audrey told me the story while John, unable to speak at times at age 90, nuzzled in beside me and bumped my leg when the story got interesting.

Before I left John's room that day, I promised him and Audrey that I would write his special Christmas trees story before that Christmas and I would donate some money from each book to the Royal Canadian Legion (Dominion Command Poppy Trust Fund, which helps veterans and their families). John Hanlon passed away a few days after our meeting.

I fulfilled my promise and wrote The Sailor and the Christmas Trees book a couple months later in a style as though John was telling his Christmas trees story to the reader. When I phoned Audrey to read her what I had written, to make sure I had the details correct, she said, "I can hear John's voice." This brought tears to her eyes and to mine. A nonfiction writer cannot receive a bigger compliment.

I added a biography of John to the back of the book and invited artist Catherine Folnovic to illustrate the first half of the book, with family photos completing the biography. In a spur-of-the-moment decision that first day in Brandon, I had asked Al to take a photo of me with John, Audrey, and Elaine in John's small room. That photo has been a precious memory ever since.

This past weekend, I was storm-stayed in Brandon after a successful weekend at the Brandon's Big One Arts & Crafts Sale. Deciding to not take a chance on driving back to Regina in bad weather, I opted for a hotel room and I also made a phone call to Elaine Rounds to see if we could connect again. We met for supper and spent three glorious hours bringing each other up to date on our lives, relishing in our friendship, and celebrating the wonderful people who brought us together.

Thank you to Dexter, John, and Audrey. But thank you, especially, to Elaine, who knows a very good story when she sees one.

Elaine Rounds and Deana Driver
in Brandon, MB - Oct. 24, 2022