"They walked these streets. We will remember them." Remembrance Week Project

Google Map-Making sense of the research

They Walked These Streets - Google My Maps“They Walked These Streets, We Will Remember Them” is an innovative and interactive community Remembrance week commemoration in Bloor West Village. It engages community members in learning about the contributions and the sacrifice of soldiers who served in the First and Second World Wars and who never returned. The project is the vision of two Toronto District School Board teachers, Katy Whitfield and Ian Da Silva, both residents of Bloor West Village and former students at Runnymede Public School and Swansea Public School and graduates of Humberside Collegiate. Back story: The idea came about in November 2020, with the creation of homemade poppies (made out of pool noodles) by Ian’s young children. Katy Whitfield researched some stories about local soldiers to accompany the poppies, and helped the neighbourhood understand how it had been impacted by the world wars and by the loss of young men who served and who died in the wars. Learning about the stories of soldiers who served in the World Wars in an innovative and engaging way! Now in its 5th year the project tells the stories of over 1300 soldiers in the army, air force, navy. There are even a couple of soldiers who served in the Korean War. Research for the project has been done by Katy Whitfield, an award-winning Canadian history teacher (2015 recipient of the Governor General’s Award for Excellence in Teaching) Military records have been accessed from the Canadian Virtual War Memorial and the Canadian Great War project, as well as the Service Files in the Library and Archives of Canada Names, addresses, service records of the soldiers, as well as photographs, newspaper articles, medals, and other community connections to the schools, churches and community organizations they were a part of have been uncovered in the research. Scope of the project: Stretches from the west at the Humber River and extends east to Dufferin Street, and from Lake Ontario to the railroad tracks north of Dundas in the Junction-it encompasses the stories from Humbercrest, Bloor West Village, the Junction, High Park, Swansea, Roncesvalles and Parkdale. This map was created using the projects research data and inputted and designed in collaboration with Lauren Woolfrey, October 15th 2024.

Map shows location of all 1300 soldier in the project by address (based on data found on attestation papers and source materials-newspaper clippings and other online research databases.

You need to zoom in close or type in an address in the search bar.

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