Harvard association plans history day

Jeff Helsdon, Editor

There will be an extra dose of history at the Tillsonburg Airport this Saturday as the Canadian Harvard Aircraft Association hosts the Military Heritage Open House and Fly Day.

The traditional nostalgia of a fly day with the Second World War-vintage Harvard trainers will be boosted by Second World War reenactors and live period music. The event starts at 9 a.m., and runs to 4 p.m.

Association vice-president John Britton provided a breakdown of the day, saying a Legion colour party ceremony will take place at 10 a.m. Throughout the day, there will be displays by the Tillsonburg Military History Club, the Harvard dive team, military reenactors, a military vehicle display, a singer performing war songs, food trucks, and free popcorn.

“This particular event we started after we decided to start something fresh and new to excite the public to come out,” Britton said of the event.

He said the event came about for a couple of reasons. The first began with the donation of memorial benches by the Fallowfield, Hewitt, and Beckham families, who were the founding fathers of the association. That led to the ongoing planning to erect a model Spitfire around a memorial garden with the benches.

“Then we thought, why don’t we dedicate one of our fly days to members of the military,” Britton said, explaining preliminary plans were to break ground for the memorial garden this Saturday. However, there were some hold-ups, and that didn’t occur.

The other reason for planning the event, which will hopefully remain an annual occurrence, was to attract more people to the monthly fly days held during the warmer months.

“We feel that we’re tapping the area,” Britton explained. “We’ve been here 40 years. We’re trying to expand the interest, to bring more people out to the day.”

It’s not that there isn’t enough interest – there were 18 flights at the last fly day – but the association wants that to continue. Britton explained that many passengers on the flights are people who come to the airport for breakfast, see the Harvest display, and end up on a plane.