Susie Kockerscheidt
Volunteer president Phil Craig (from left), holds the symbolic key for the new classroom (inset) with Shane and Rick Carter and Keswick Kinsmen Wayne Hoult, Terry Alberti and daughter, Christine. The Keswick Kinsmen donated the portable to the military museum.
Georgina
September 24, 2008 07:38 PM
John Slykhuis
The Georgina Military Museum added a special new classroom thanks to a donation by the Keswick Kinsmen Club and will soon be host to some impressive new armed forces hardware outside the facility on Woodbine Avenue.
Museum volunteer president Phil Craig has made arrangements to bring in an armoured personnel carrier, a half-tonne army truck and jeep to be located on the museum grounds.
Next summer, a massive Leopard tank, on loan from a collector in Thornhill, will arrive, he said.
The portable classroom will play a crucial role in future school tours, serving as a air raid shelter, complete with sandbags, he said.
The museum has applied for a Trillium grant to renovate the former school portable, he added.
“The kids will assemble in the shelter and, in darkness, hear old radio broadcasts ‘This is the BBC’ announcing the beginning of the Second World War,” he said.
Then they’ll heard the sound of air raid sirens and bombs falling from the sky, followed by video footage of the opening battles, including Dunkirk, he added.
The scene will fade to black again, before the lights come up, revealing a uniformed armed forces veteran, who will begin the tour.
“We’re also working on finalizing an audio tour when I’m not here,” Mr. Craig said.
That will involved a mobile audio unit leading the visitor to the various displays, describing what they are seeing.
Three new flat screen TVs, a donation from The Source, will add to the experience, he said.
Among the new videos will be one about D-Day from the National War Museum
For more, go to www.georginamiliarymuseum.ca