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.

PRAIRIE FARM STORIES OF SELLING CREAM TEACH US WHILE CELEBRATING THE PAST

In 2015, I wrote this "Read My Book" piece for Regina and Saskatoon newspapers to introduce readers to the fascinating anthology Cream Money: Stories of Prairie People. The book has been popular, due to its sharing of Prairie history and memories of the old days on the farm:

We can learn much from the people around us. Whether they are family, friends, acquaintances or people we have just met, there are stories to be told and lessons to be learned. This concept has been a driving force in my work as a freelance journalist for more than 30 years and has followed me into the field of book writing, editing and publishing.

In 2011, when I began working with the Saskatoon German Days Committee to help them create their book Egg Money: A Tribute to Saskatchewan Pioneer Women, I commented that they could also publish a book called Cream Money, since cream money was another important income source for farm women in days gone by. Of course, their Egg Money book is based on a statue of that name in downtown Saskatoon, so “Cream Money” did not make sense as a project for them.

So in 2014, my husband and publishing partner Al Driver and I decided to invite writers to send us their stories of selling cream and other interesting tales from past decades of farming on the Prairies. We collected 29 short stories and two poems from 30 Prairie writers, including myself.

My mother, Sabinka Staszewski, came to Canada from Poland in August 1929. She was two years old and made the 12-day voyage by ship with her mother, father and three siblings (ages eight years, six years, and six weeks - see photo below). After arrival in Halifax, Nova Scotia, they headed west by train to what would become their new home in Athabasca, Alberta, 95 miles north of Edmonton.

The family spent their first two winters living in a hole in the ground. Literally.

During the First World War, my grandfather had seen houses that were dug into the hills of Romania. There were no hills on the Alberta farmland he’d purchased, so he adapted this idea and created the first dugout house anyone had seen in that region. Their dugout house was four feet deep, eight feet wide, and 14 feet long. A small wood-burning cook stove and oven was used for cooking and warmth. Their large trunk was their only other piece of furniture until my grandfather constructed a long bench.

One of the first items my grandparents purchased in town to add to their meagre possessions was a young Holstein cow named Jenny, to supply the family with milk. Cow’s milk was an essential item on every farm in those days, especially for a growing family. 

Other parts of my family’s story include the fact that my father, also an immigrant, and his siblings were punished for speaking Ukrainian in school. Until they could afford their own cow, my grandmother helped milk a neighbour’s cows so she could bring a quart of milk home for her own family each day.

These are lessons that we can learn from and stories which need to be told to preserve not only our history but to teach the next generation. Other stories within the pages of Cream Money tell of hard work, of children and mice falling into milk cans, of saving cream money for essential items such as teeth repair, of sending the cream cans to town by train, and relishing the rich desserts made with farm-fresh cream.

On days when I am tempted to feel gloomy, I remember the story of the dugout house. Life in Canada is good. Let’s keep sharing those stories.

Cream Money: Stories of Prairie People is available from www.driverworks.ca, McNally Robinson Booksellers, Chapters, Indigo, Coles, and other select retailers. 

Here's a link to my blog about the fun book launch we had for the book!

Liberation Day Netherlands 70th Anniversary and The Little Coat book

May 5th is Liberation Day in the Netherlands. Today - May 5, 2015 - is the 70th Anniversary of the end of Nazi occupation of the Netherlands during the Second World War. Canada played a major role in ending that occupation. For this reason, Canadians are still highly revered by Dutch citizens.

My husband/publishing partner Al (not pictured) and I (left), along with author Alan J. Buick (centre) and his wife Carol Buick (right), were privileged to be invited by Saskatchewan Honorary Dutch Consul Judie Dyck to attend a celebration ceremony last week in Moose Jaw, honouring some Saskatchewan veterans who fought to free the Netherlands. We were invited to bring our award-winning, best-selling book, The Little Coat: The Bob and Sue Elliott Story to honour Canadian soldier Bob Elliott's heroism and the historic coat given by Canadian soldiers to the then-10-year-old Dutch girl Sussie Cretier during the war.

This was the program for the Saskatchewan event celebrating the 70th Anniversary of Canadian Liberation of the Netherlands, at Moose Jaw's Western Development Museum, April 24, 2015.

 Judie Dyck, Saskatchewan's Honorary Consul to the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Canada, organized the celebration.

Judie Dyck, standing on the left as Lt. Colonel Christa Oppers-Beumers, Defence Attaché, Kingdom of the Netherlands, addressed the crowd.

Saskatchewan veterans were thanked for their service.

Lt. Colonel Christa Oppers-Beumers presented 70th Anniversary Liberation pins to veterans.

A veteran introduced herself to the crowd.

Author Alan J. Buick signed copies of The Little Coat book. (Publisher Al Driver is seated at left.)

 Author Alan J. Buick chatted about the inspiring story of The Little Coat.

The veterans and guests were treated to a tour of Canadian Forces Base 15 Wing Moose Jaw in the afternoon.

Maria McNair (nee Van De Werf) chatted with author Alan J. Buick at 15 Wing Moose Jaw. Maria came to Canada from the Netherlands in 1949 as a war bride, settling in Coronach, Saskatchewan. 

Maria's image (above) is one of those - along with Sue Elliott of The Little Coat book (below) - painted in the Canadian-Dutch War Brides exhibit created by Calgary artist Bev Tosh. 

Sue's special little coat (on display previously at the Canadian War Museum below), has been loaned by the Canadian War Museum to Calgary's Military Museums to be a companion to Bev Tosh's Canadian-Dutch War Brides exhibit from May 5 until August 28, 2015. The exhibition is called Trees Heeft een Canadees (Teresa has a Canadian). 

Al and I were privileged to see Bev Tosh's exhibit (above) in Groesbeek, Netherlands in 2013, and to meet Sue Elliott / Sussie Cretier of the book (below) in person in 2013. Here is my blog about that wonderful experience.

The final words go to the late Bob Elliott and to Sue Elliott, from the final pages of our book. Below, they are shown at a 2010 Liberation Day celebration in the Netherlands.

"I see this book as a tribute to all my wartime comrades. It

also expresses my feelings for the people of the Netherlands

who suffered so much under the Germans during the war years.

I am also thankful I have my Sussie."

- Bob Elliott

"My gratitude for the young men who gave up their youth

and their lives for the freedom of our country. I never, ever will

forget.

Veterans, thank you all so very much. You all were heroes

and always will be for the Dutch people. I have one veteran for

myself and I sure love him.

Much love to you all."

- Sussie Elliott