Acknowledgements

The World Remembers acknowledges the Canadian War Museum, not only for its interest and support over the First World War centenary years, but also for its agreement to partner with The World Remembers to build the first global 1914–1918 memorial cairn. We also thank the museum for sharing our ambition to eventually include the name of every man and woman who lost their lives in the Great War in this commemoration exhibit.

This global First World War memorial cairn would not have been possible without significant donations from the Robert G. Kearns Foundation, the Don Cranston and Megan Hill Charitable Giving Fund, the LRDR Foundation-Richard Rooney, Donald L. Lenz, Robert F. Richards, James Estey, Sandra and Jim Pitblado, Ian and Helen Giffen, Bryce and Nicki Douglas, and the Catherine and Fredrik Eaton Charitable Foundation.

For ten years, many donors have courageously supported this logical yet challenge-laden commemoration. The assistance of hundreds of individuals in Canada and other countries who volunteered their time and expertise — from the legal, web design, computer software, mathematics, military, history, literary, education, archive and museum communities — has been invaluable.

Neither would The World Remembers have been possible without the early interest of Veterans Affairs Canada, the Department of Canadian Heritage and Global Affairs Canada. Without the engagement of the Government of Canada, serious discussions with governments outside Canada would hardly have been possible.

In proposing The World Remembers to multiple governments, it was often the interest of diplomats and officials who personally appreciated what we were attempting that became instrumental in securing their nation’s participation. Time and again, individuals from ministries of education, defence, foreign affairs and culture in Berlin, Ottawa, Rome, Prague, Brussels, Belgrade, Warsaw and other capitals helped drive the project.

Early interest from Joseph Zimet, the Director General of Mission du Centenaire in France; Alan Pateman-Jones, the Director General of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission in the UK; and the President of the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge, as well as Thomas Rey and Arne Schrader at Volksbund, was instrumental in giving the project a chance to secure the participation of other nations.

We thank Reason One, an imaginative digital media company in Toronto that made the project possible by inventing technical solutions to complex challenges. We have also been pleased to be associated with the museums that have presented our names-display: the In Flanders Fields Museum in Belgium, the Bundeswehr Museum of Military History in Germany and the National WWI Museum and Memorial in the United States.

But, above all, we wish to thank the families of those who fought in the First World War, who come from almost every world culture and now live in almost every part of the globe. They carry with them the personal connection to the millions of stories about those who lost their lives in that catastrophic conflict more than 100 years ago. We will remember.

OUR FOUNDATION SUPPORTERS

The Burns Foundation

The McLean Foundation

The Garfield Weston Foundation

The Shevchenko Foundation

THE GOVERNMENT OF CANADA HAS PROVIDED FUNDS FOR THE OTTAWA 2017 AND 2018 DISPLAYS

VETERANS AFFAIRS CANADA SUPPORT

We are grateful for the generous support of Veterans Affairs Canada for our 2016 and 2018 outreach to francophone locations.

THE MUSEUMS

The World Remembers is pleased to be associated with a number of museums that are presenting the names-display: The Canadian War Museum in Ottawa, The Bundeswehr Museum of Military History in Dresden, The National WWI Museum and Memorial in Kansas City, and the In Flanders Fields Museum in Belgium.

   The Canadian War Museum

  The Bundeswehr Museum of Military History in Dresden

  The National World War I Museum and Memorial  

OUR CORPORATE AND ASSOCIATION SUPPORTERS 

Thanks to the generous support of Kentico Software, The World Remembers was able to include the names of soldiers from the modern-day Czech Republic who lost their lives in 1915. The World Remembers is also pleased to use Kentico software for its website. Headquartered in Brno, Kentico provides an all-in-one CMS, E-commerce, and Online Marketing platform.

        Institut Italien de Culture de Montréal

The Turkish-Canadian Association Edmonton

Austria's participation in The World Remembers was supported by the Austrian Cultural Forum Ottawa

THE INDIVIDUALS

We wish to acknowledge the individuals who helped The World Remembers along the long road from conception to launch. The names are in no particular order since their contributions were so varied and so important. We have not included here the names of Canadian civil servants presently in government who provided both personal enthusiasm and departmental interest, making this project possible. They are all owed an enormous debt of gratitude.

    Richard & Julie Wernham

    Dwayne Grant

    Chuck Anderson

THE WORLD REMEMBERS TEAM

TWR STAFF – We thank our fearless staff of Marta Ryczko, Bryan McClure, Jolene Simko and Heather Sangster. We must also mention the strategic contributions of Martin Conboy, Michael Blondeau, Margaret McKay, Jim Wright, Ruth Ostrower, Michael Haltrecht, Sarah McLaughlin, Barb Linds, Midhat Aqueel, Aranka Lengyel, Mary Jane Fletcher and the originators of the display logic Reudiger Willinger, Wesley George and Louis-Philippe Thibeault.

TWR BOARD – Our Board members Michael MacMillan, Jacques Fauteux, David Brady, Cliff Goldfarb, Jonathan F. Vance, Cathy Burrows, and Keith Durrant have guided the project from an unlikely possibility to actual production.

TWR ADVISORY COUNCIL –  Our Advisory members have provided invaluable assistance at opportune moments. They are Margaret MacMillan, the Right Honourable Paul Martin, Tom Jenkins, Jim Wright, the Right Honourable Adrienne Clarkson, General Richard Rohmer (Ret’d), Major General Lewis MacKenzie (Ret’d), Sir Hew Strachan, Pauline Couture, Heather Mitchell, Michel Blondeau and Stuart Coxe.

REASON ONE (Canada) Inc. - The staff at Reason One (formerly Ecentricarts Inc.) are the creators of the display software, website and interactive kiosk. They have calmly supported us through numerous headaches of logic and execution: they have included among others Keith Durrant, Sean Kozey, David Fahy, Lisa Madokoro, Adam Forstall, Cassie Kaiser, Jen Michie, Linda Nakanishi, Steve Kerr, Stephanie Allen, Nancy Kha, Mathieu Mencé and Artur Cygan.

THE ORIGINALS – We wish to acknowledge our original donors; Michael MacMillan, Richard Rooney, Duncan Jackman, Don Cranston, Red Wilson, Blake Goldring and John Cleghorn, without whom none of this would have been possible. We thank them for the risk they took when The World Remembers was just an unlikely dream.

But above all, we wish to thank the families of the veterans of the First World War. These families are from almost every world culture and now live in almost every part of the globe. They carry with them the stories of the millions who lost their lives. We will remember.