THE words that left the biggest mark on Bathurst’s Anzac Day service were spoken by a teenager wise beyond her years.
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Each year on Anzac Day, the RSL Sub Branch invites a Bathurst school student to deliver the commemoration address.
MacKillop College’s captain Daisy Pike had that honour this year and did not let the significance of addressing veterans and their families escape her.
- WATCH: Click to minute 15 to hear Daisy Pike’s address.
Ms Pike was in a unique position, being able to draw on her own experience touring the western battle fields in Europe with her school in 2016.
Her address set the scene of the Beaumont-Hamel Newfoundland Memorial in France, the way the sun peeks through the pines, how the earth has been disturbed, and the innate sense of calm that falls over the area despite the bloodshed it represents.
“Beneath this beautiful European landscape, scars are still obvious,” she said.
“The violence that shook this land 100 years ago still haunts the earth and those on it.”
As she continued her address, Ms Pike encouraged young people to not just remember the sacrifice of soldiers, but take action in their daily lives to ensure their sacrifice led to lasting change.
“If we as the future of our country are to truly honour these brave young men and women that gave up so much for our guaranteed safety, our secure democracy, and simply our lives, we must show respect through action,” she said.
“Whether it be through future peacekeeping, through genuine respect for one another, or by the virtue of gratitude, it will be through these actions of humility that we will be ensuring that our soldiers fell for a generation that will contribute to this planet, contribute in a way that will mean future devastation alike to past worldly conflicts can never terrorise us again.”
Following her address, sub branch president David Mills said this was one of the few times in his life he had been speechless, and if that was what the future of Australia looks like, could Ms Pike and her peers take over tomorrow.
As she made her way back to her seat, her eyes glistened with emotion, making it clear that she meant every word of her powerful address.
