War of 1812 - Interview Series

by Judi McWilliams

Anne Brooks - Part Seven

This now leads me to another favourite question … I shared with Anne that Volunteers are a huge part of all Ontario’s festivals, events, and fundraising activities for many worthwhile causes. Part of our volunteer base, in Ontario, is made up of the youth of today. I recently discovered that approximately 5 million volunteers, in Ontario alone, are helping our economy. They are not only increasing revenue into our communities and decreasing personnel costs, but adding a work force that would cost 8-10 billion dollars in time alone! I was wondering if Anne, with her current roles, encouraged today's youth to participate in re-enactments? Anne answers … “I don’t know if I encourage youth to participate in re-enactments but I encourage them to learn about their history and I think re-enactments and living history are good ways to go about this. It is a lot more interesting to go to a re-enactment to learn about a battle during the War of 1812 over reading a chapter or two in a text book. I know that I enjoyed going to the old forts and re-enactments at a child so I hope that other children feel the same way.” Over the course of the year, I am collecting some anecdotes to publish in our THE INSIDE SCOOP special “anecdote” edition? With this Anne thought to share this with us … “Many of the War of 1812 Groups are spin offs of the Upper Thames Military re-enactment Society. There were not as many re-enactment groups until the mid to late 1980s. The Upper Thames Military re-enactment Society started out when one guy put an ad in the pennysaver.”
(To Be Continued)