SASKATOON -- Dozens of students from Saskatoon Public Schools and Greater Saskatoon Catholic Schools on Monday laid poppies on the headstones of Canadian soldiers who died in service to their country.

“Well it's a very powerful day,” said Jim McDonald, local coordinator of the No Stone Left Alone Memorial Foundation. “As you've seen the students are out and actually looking at headstones. I would say it's like our version of what the children in Europe are doing to the headstones of the Canadian Armed Forces that are there. They're remembering them for the powerful actions that they took during their service in the service of peace.”

The No Stone Left Alone Memorial Foundation, which organized Monday's event at Woodlawn Cemetery, was started by Maureen Purvis in Edmonton in 2011, who aimed to expand the movement across Canada. This is the second year it has been held in Saskatoon.

McDonald said the event doesn't mark the heroics of the fallen, rather it remembers the loss of those who have fought for our freedom.

“I think it's a great idea, I hope they continue it and hope it grows,” said Rodney Holowaty, retired Army Captain of the Canadian Armed Forces. “I think every opportunity we can get to honour soldiers of the past, present and the future we should be doing it.”

It has been more than a century since John McCrae wrote In Flanders Fields; both McDonald and Holowaty carry the poppy's significance with them each year.

“For us, John McCrae’s poem really encapsulates some of the horrors and some of the bad things about war, but it also gives us hope,” said McDonald. “The lark, and the parts of the poem are just wonderful and allow us to have some hope. That even if we make mistakes and go to war, we get through it and we remember people that have done that.”

“It's the significance of the poppy, I had the opportunity to go on pilgrimage in 2008 to tour the battlefields of Europe,” said Holowaty. I had the opportunity to run up Juno Beach where my father landed and when I got to the end of the beach I looked down, and all I could see was these poppies. In Europe, poppies grow like weeds. I'll tell you it was pretty emotional for me to run up the same beach my father ran up and luckily nobody was shooting at me this time.”

The No Stone Left Alone Memorial Foundation has reached over half of its goal to see all 117,000 veterans' headstones in Canada honoured with a poppy placed by Canadian youth.