00:00OK then, Don, if you can tell me about the project the kids have been doing, please.
00:04Yeah, this year's Christmas Tues project has a theme around PALS battalions,
00:08which were particularly prevalent in the north of the country.
00:13At the start of the First World War, I think the government realised that Britain had a fairly small army
00:18comparative to other European countries. We were essentially a naval force, being a maritime nation,
00:23so they went on a recruitment drive. I think people would be quite familiar with Lloyd Kitchen
00:28as opposed to pointing the finger, we need you, your country needs you.
00:32So our boys were tasked with coming up with some ideas around designing their own battalions posters,
00:38and in fact coming up with their own PALS battalions.
00:41So they'd been very creative around designing PALS battalion posters,
00:46and one or two of them had an idea about inviting different organisations to become our PALS
00:50and sign up to our PALS battalion. We decided to invite Young Asian Voices based in Hendon
00:56to become a part of our PALS battalion.
00:59I understand the Salvation Army's been involved in this project as well?
01:02Yeah, because one of the missions of our PALS battalion was obviously, the lads,
01:07we don't want them to go off and fight in a war, a war as horrible, as disastrous consequences.
01:12So we decided that one of our missions would be to support those most in need,
01:16and particularly the most vulnerable in society, and the elderly.
01:20So we did link in with the Salvation Army, and they gave us an invite to come across
01:25and talk to their elderly members of the Salvation Army in Millfield about the project.
01:32One of the lads read out a poem, one of the lads read out a letter from home,
01:36from the trenches he imagined, or they imagined what it was like,
01:39the horrible conditions, cold, wet, damp, dead bodies,
01:44potentially lying beside them in the trenches, sickness, illness, etc, etc.
01:51So the lads spoke to the elderly members of the Salvation Army about this,
01:56and they also enacted a play, a short play.
01:58We got them to imagine what the actual Christmas truce was like, and how it would have come about.
02:02So we set up a platform on the stage in the Salvation Army.
02:07We had the Germans on one side, the British on the other side, and no man's land in the middle.
02:11And we got them just to imagine what the dialogue would have been,
02:14and how the situation arose, where hostilities or the fighting stopped for a period of time on Christmas Day.
02:21I know the lads do a project linked to World War I every year.
02:25How important is it that this generation do remember the sacrifices that that generation made?
02:29It's massively important. That's how we're able to live as we are today.
02:32We have our freedoms, we live in a democracy, a democratic society.
02:37It's harder every year, to be honest, as the years go by and younger people come along,
02:44and they can't quite remember or are not too familiar with World War I and the story around World War I.
02:50But it is massive. It's a huge part of our history.
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