BEAVER BANK: Inside Good Day Cafe on a cozy Tuesday afternoon (April 28), Danielle Moore spoke softly but with unmistakable conviction about an experience she says she is “still processing”— one that took her across the Atlantic and deep into history.
A Grade 12 student at Lockview High School from Beaver Bank, Moore was recently selected as Nova Scotia’s representative for the prestigious Vimy Pilgrimage Award program, joining 20 youth from across Canada.
Each participant represented a province or territory—with only one territory not representing a diverse national cohort. From Atlantic Canada, Moore stood alongside two students from New Brunswick, and one each from Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador.
“It was so surreal the whole week that we were there,” Moore said during the interview. “It was a lot, so much information every single day.
“The memorials… it’s hard to wrap your head around being there.”
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The Vimy Pilgrimage Award is a fully funded, week-long educational program that takes students to France and Belgium, where they visit key First World War sites, cemeteries, and memorials, including the iconic Canadian National Vimy Memorial.
Participants also complete an academic curriculum leading up to the trip, including readings, research projects, and presentations.
For Moore, the journey was more than academic, it was deeply personal.
“I have a large military family history,” she explained.
“We’re five generations in the Royal Canadian Navy. So just being there… it was like I couldn’t reach them, but I was standing where history happened. It didn’t feel real.”
That connection to service and sacrifice shaped her entire experience. A recipient of the Lieutenant Governor’s Award in Grade 11 at Lockview High, Moore said being chosen for the pilgrimage carried a profound sense of responsibility and meaning.
“It was an honor because of the people I look up to—mentors and inspirations—who’ve received similar recognition,” she said.
“And also, to honor my family, and a loved one we recently lost… that was a big motivation for me to apply.”
The application process itself was rigorous, involving essays, references, and an interview unlike any she had experienced before.
“They asked questions in French, showed artwork and asked us to interpret it—it was very unique,” she said. “Even the application process was a learning experience.”
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Once selected, Moore and her fellow participants began weeks of academic preparation before departing overseas. But nothing, she said, could truly prepare them for what they would encounter.
Their days in Europe were intense and immersive. They visited multiple cemeteries daily, sometimes four or more—alongside museums and historic battlefields.
“The very first day, we landed, got a quick briefing, and went straight to a cemetery,” she recalled. “The bus ride after that was completely silent.”
It was there that the emotional weight of the experience began to settle in.
“The youngest gravestone we saw was a 15-year-old boy,” Moore said. “That’s something you can’t really articulate.
“It makes you reflect—like, I’m here on a fully funded trip, calling my family every day. And someone my age, or younger, could have been sent here in a completely different time… and never come home.”
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The program, she emphasized, was designed not just to teach history, but to humanize it.
“Our educational team did an amazing job of putting humanity back into a very inhumane experience,” she said.
“It wasn’t about one country versus another. It was about individuals—their stories, their reasons, their families.”
That perspective shift has stayed with her.
“A lot of people came not for heroism, but to support their families, to put food on the table,” she said. “That’s something I’ll carry with me.”
Despite the emotional intensity, Moore said the full impact of the experience didn’t hit her until she returned home.
“I think it affected me more after I got back than while I was there,” she admitted. “It’s something I’m still processing.
“I think I’ll keep discovering how it’s changed me for the rest of my life.”
That sense of ongoing reflection is something she embraces.
“It’s going to be an ever-evolving thing,” she said. “What I learned, what I saw. I’ll keep drawing from it.”
Moore, a member of the 305 Royal Canadian Sea Cadet Corps (Sackville), also credits the support system around her for making the experience possible—from her family to her teachers and cadet leaders.
“My dad, my officers, my teachers. I can’t emphasize enough how much support I’ve had,” she said. “None of this would have been possible without them.”
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Her father, a longtime Navy member, had a particularly poignant reaction.
“He said, ‘I did 25 years in the Navy and haven’t seen these places and my daughter gets to,’” Moore said with a smile.
“He was very proud… maybe a little jealous too.”
Looking ahead, Moore hopes to one day return to Europe—this time with her father—to share the experience from a new perspective.
“I’d love to walk him through everything,” she said. “I think I’d see it differently again.”
For now, she’s focused on carrying forward what she’s learned, particularly her passion for history and education.
“I really believe history is an essential part of our education,” she said.
“I want to share what I’ve learned with others.”
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Though she initially kept her selection relatively private, the response from those around her has been overwhelmingly positive.
“When people found out, they were so supportive,” she said. “It meant a lot.”
As the conversation wound down in the café, Moore returned to a theme she had touched on throughout—the question of “why me?”
“It’s something I still think about,” she said.
“I’m just so grateful. I’ve had incredible support, and this was an incredible opportunity.”
For a student from Beaver Bank, that opportunity has already left a lasting mark—one measured not just in miles traveled, but in perspective gained, connections made, and a deeper understanding of the human stories behind history.
