For more than a decade, Port Moody's Guy Black has been working to get recognition for Canada's Korean war vets.
Now, it's his twin sons he's thinking about.
As Black prepares for his biggest, most complex venture in the long road to commemorate the efforts of Canadian soldiers who fought to bring peace to the Korean peninsula, he's hoping to leave behind a legacy for generations.
To that end, he has engaged his sons' school, Sir Frederick Banting middle, in a ceremony and walk to help him honour the Canadian Korean war vets and to mark the 60th anniversary of the ceasefire.
But this 72 km walk won't be just any peace march.
Beginning on Friday at 10:30 a.m. (after a ceremony involving the whole school and dozens of dignitaries), Black will walk from Banting in Coquitlam, up Burnaby Mountain, across the Ironworkers Memorial Bridge to the summit of Mount Seymour and back to Burnaby's Central Park Saturday morning.
There, he'll participate in an an official commemoration ceremony at 11 a.m. with the consul general of the Republic of Korea.
STRICT TIME SCHEDULE
To make the strict time schedule and do the walk in 24 hours, Black has laid out the route in detail, trained for two years, carrying 40 lb. of rocks on his back for many of his excursions up Burnaby Mountain, and has engaged students and several VIPs to be his companions for at least part of the route.
It's a gruelling 24-hour journey that Black wants to do to set an example and show what the Canadian war vets went through. Much of the Korean war, he said, was fought in mountains and valleys in all types of weather.
"I was thinking about them when I was doing the training, when I was carrying the back pack and carrying the weight. They were carrying 100 lb., I was carrying 40 lb. but I'm 48 years old and they were 18," Black said.
His wife and sons will accompany him along the route, and 36 Banting middle school students and teacher Chris Blizzard will join him, too, participating in the Gapyong stone ceremony at Simon Fraser University's Burnaby campus.
The stones will be collected from points along the route and presented to the consul general on Saturday in a ceremony commemorating peace, not war, Black said, something he hopes the future generations will understand.
"Veterans are guys that have gone to war and they know what the reality of war is, and I've learned that message form them, and yeah, you have to try to avoid war."
It's a lesson he hopes his two boys will take to heart as they follow their dad's progress in trying to make a difference for the men who fought, and died, in Canada's "forgotten war."
What's happening
Friday morning at Sir Frederick Banting middle school in Coquitlam, 600 students, dozens of dignitaries and veterans will hold a ceremony, then walk to SFU's Burnaby Mountain campus for a Gapyong stone ceremony at noon.
Guy Black, a Port Moody resident and longtime advocate for Korean war veterans, will continue the journey with a few friends and supporters to the summit of Mount Seymour, for a ceremony with members of the North Shore Rescue team at 10 p.m.
Black's walk will continue overnight to Burnaby Central Park for a commemorative ceremony marking the 60th anniversary of the Korean War ceasefire and 2013, the Year of the Korean War Veteran, at 11 a.m. Saturday.
Things to note: Stones will be collected on the route and delivered in a special jar to the consul general of the Republic of Korea and will be taken back to Korea for depositing at a war cemetery.
Members of the public are welcome to join in the ceremonies at SFU, Mountain Seymour and Central Park.
