Plans are well underway for the Remembrance Day service on Nov. 11 at the Soldiers’ Tower on Hart House Circle.

A meeting was held by the Soldiers’ Tower Committee on Tuesday to raise awareness for the service and for the Soldiers’ Tower in general. It was attended by 15 student representatives of various colleges and poppies were distributed to be sold at the colleges.

Major William Heath said they hold the service out of “gratitude and thanksgiving” for those who gave their lives, which “we almost take for granted today.” People “just getting their lives started were snuffed out,” said Heath.

The Soldiers’ Tower, the tall building in between Hart House and University College whose arches you may walk under on your way to class every day, was built in 1924 in memory of the 623 U of T students, graduates, and staff who died during the First World War.

The Memorial Room houses a small museum manned by volunteers and is open once a month and for special occasions. The Memorial Book was published in 1994 and lists 557 U of T students, graduates, and staff who were killed in the Second World War. Ninety-one year old Brigadier General Harold Brown spent three years researching and compiling the book. A stained glass Memorial Window inspired by John McCrae’s poem “In Flanders Fields” was built in 1995, and is illuminated at night.

SAC President Ashley Morton also attended the meeting. Though the level of awareness for the museum and the service has been “declining for a number of years,” said Morton, amongst the community there has been “a bit of a turn around.” He believes the service is “not about praising war, but praising actions that create peace.”

Two years ago SAC President Alex Kerner caused a stir by publicly choosing not to participate in the Remembrance Day events.

In 1991 a letter to the editor of The Newspaper was written by Hart House Chaplain Rev. Clarke MacDonald “to clear up some misunderstandings that seem to persist regarding the meaning and purpose” of the Memorial Service. The purpose of the service “is not to glorify war,” says the letter, but “simply to remember with gratitude the large number of volunteers from this University who paid the supreme sacrifice in two world wars.”

The service usually draws around 1,500 people and has been “increasing in importance and attendance in the last couple of years,” said Lieutenant Colonel Gary Knopf. It will include a student reading of a poem called “High Flight,” as well as the traditional “In Flanders Fields,” and a performance by the Hart House Chorus.

The committee encouraged students to attend the service on Nov. 11 and to get up and see the Soldiers’ Tower.