This April, Your Family Can Help Keep These Stories Alive.

An item from the Wreaths Across America organization.

There are children in this country who grow up knowing exactly what freedom costs.

They are military children. They share their parent with a mission, a deployment, and sometimes a sacrifice that cannot be undone. April is the month we honor them and the families behind them.

This April, Wreaths Across America is asking families across the country to do more than honor the moment. We are asking you to help sustain it.

The TEACH Program Needs Your Support.

In 2022, retired educator and Gold Star Mother Cindy Tatum built something she wished had existed when her own son was alive. The TEACH program is a free, K-12 curriculum designed to pass down the stories of service, sacrifice, and courage to the next generation.

It is free to every family who downloads it. This curriculum can bridge the gap between the abstract concept of service and make it real, in tangible ways. And it only stays free because people like you choose to support it.

Supporting the TEACH program is simple. Visit our support page and choose whatever amount feels right for your family. Every dollar goes directly toward keeping this curriculum alive and growing for families across the country.

Support Teach Program

See What Your Support Makes Possible.

The TEACH program is not a worksheet. It is a living curriculum that grows each year, introducing new materials, stories, and ways for young people to connect with the values of service and character.

Here is what families can access right now, completely free:

The Remember Me Service-Learning Project: A hands-on student project connecting young people to the stories of those who served. Built for all grades. Designed to start conversations that last.
Past Stories, Current Lessons with Miss Cindy: A brand new show on Wreaths Across America Radio, premiering this week, on April 15th. Miss Cindy brings her Gold Star heart and 30 years of classroom experience to stories your whole family can enjoy listening to together.
Sign up for the TEACHING TIMES Newsletter: A digital newsletter sharing new materials, project ideas, and resources delivered directly to your family throughout the year.

All of it free. All of it was built for families like yours. All of it sustained by people who believe these stories are worth keeping.

Your support this April honors military children, sustains a Gold Star Mother’s life’s work, and ensures the next generation of kids grows up knowing the names and the stories they were meant to remember.

That is worth sharing with every family you know. It’s that important.

Support Teach Program

Download Curriculum

Wreaths Across America, PO Box 249, Columbia Falls, ME 04623, United States, 877-385-9504

Next week: Canada & Silicon Valley in the Age of AI 🤖

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A newsletter from a fellow Canadian organization in the Bay Area.

Canadian Studies Announcements

In This Issue:

Academic Opportunities

• Call for Papers: 24th Biennial Conference of the American Council for Québec Studies

Upcoming Events

• Taking the Long-Term View: Technology Relations between Canada and the Bay Area in the Age of AI

External Events

• National Women’s Soccer League Canadian Heritage Night: Bay FC vs. Ottawa Rapid FC

• Le Vent du Nord & Foghorn Stringband at the Freight

ACADEMIC OPPORTUNITIES

Call for Papers: 24th Biennial Conference of the American Council for Québec Studies

Deadline: May 1

The American Council for Québec Studies (ACQS) has extended the deadline for its call for proposals for its next biennial conference, to be held November 12–15, 2026, at the Omni Mont-Royal Hotel in Montreal.

The chosen theme, “Crossings, Crossroads, Intersections: Québec Studies Between Fracture and Connection,” welcomes a wide range of approaches in both the social sciences and the arts and humanities. It aims to highlight the significance of the exchanges made possible through the cultural and political intersections that enrich North American Francophone communities.

Conference presentations can be made in French or English. Click here to read the full call for papers.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Taking the Long-Term View: Technology Relations between Canada and the Bay Area in the Age of AI
Thurs., April 23 | 12:00 pm | 223 Philosophy Hall | RSVP

Canadians have made foundational contributions to the world’s technological advances. Before Apple and Google dominated the market, Research in Motion’s Blackberry invented the mobile office. Today’s AI landscape rests on the work of titans like Geoffrey Hinton, Yoshua Bengio, Richard Sutton, Joelle Pineau, Doina Precup, and Ilya Sutskever. Their long-term research pursuits at both universities and companies have fueled modern neural networks and machine learning.

The Bay Area, meanwhile, has long been a hub of technological innovation. It is a place where scientific theory mixes with venture funding and engineering expertise to make designs into successful products. The relationship between the Bay Area and Canada’s technological talent has always been strong, and this panel will explore the current landscape and the outlook for the future. How can we ensure that both the long-term research pursuits as well as the start-ups necessary for innovation thrive in both environments? What can we learn from the different ecosystems, and the relationships that we’ve built up to now?

About the Panelists

Timothy Barfoot is a professor at the University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies (UTIAS) and a researcher in robot autonomy and vehicle navigation technologies. He is Director of the UofT Robotics Institute, co-Faculty Advisor of UofT’s self-driving car team, and previously worked as Director of Autonomous Systems at Apple in California. Professor Barfoot holds a BASc from the University of Toronto, and a PhD from UTIAS in robotics.

Carl Choi is the President of RLWRLD USA, a physical AI startup developing robot foundation models for industrial environments. Before joining RLWRLD, he was a partner with Alumni Ventures in Silicon Valley, where he led investments in AI, robotics, and foundational technologies. Mr. Choi holds a bachelor of mathematics from the University of Waterloo, a BBA from Wilfrid Laurier University, and an MBA from UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business.

Matei Zaharia is an associate professor of Electrical Engineering & Computer Sciences (EECS) at UC Berkeley. His research focuses on computer systems for large-scale workloads such as AI, data analytics, and cloud computing. He is also the co-founder and CTO of Databricks, a cloud-based platform for data analytics. Professor Zaharia holds a bachelor of mathematics from the University of Waterloo, and a PhD from UC Berkeley. Prior to joining the Berkeley faculty, he taught at MIT and Stanford.

Claire Tomlin (moderator) is a professor in the Department of EECS at UC Berkeley and holds the James and Katherine Lau Chair in Engineering. Her research interests include unmanned aerial vehicles, air traffic control and modeling of biological processes. Professor Tomlin holds a BASc from the University of Waterloo, an MSc from Imperial College, London, and a PhD in EECS from UC Berkeley.

This event is made possible thanks to the generous support of the Bluma Appel Fund and the Consulate General of Canada in San Francisco.

This event will have a remote attendance option via Zoom. Please select the “virtual attendance” in the RSVP form to receive the link.

If you require an accommodation to participate fully in this event, please let us know with as much advance notice as possible by emailing canada@berkeley.edu.

EXTERNAL EVENTS

National Women’s Soccer League Canadian Heritage Night: Bay FC vs. Ottawa Rapid FC

Fri., April 17 | 7:00 pm | San Jose | Tickets

Be a part of history at the first-ever match of a Canadian team playing in the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL)! Home team Bay FC also has two players on the Canadian National Team: Sydney Collins and Lysianne Proulx. Join fellow soccer fans from around the Bay and friends from the Digital Moose Lounge and Consulate to cheer on these Canadian athletes!

This unique offer, customized for all Canadian communities in the Bay Area, grants you access to a select seating location at an exclusive group rate for Bay FC’s match against the Ottawa Rapids at PayPal Park on April 17th (7pm kickoff). Doors open at 5:00 pm to enjoy the family-friendly open space, food trucks, and fan experiences.

Le Vent du Nord & Foghorn Stringband at the Freight

Thurs., May 7 | 8:00 pm | Berkeley | Tickets

Get ready for an evening of high-energy roots traditions as Québécois band Le Vent du Nord joins forces with the Foghorn Stringband for an exciting co-feature performance at the Freight in Berkeley. Blending the driving rhythms of Québecois music with the old-time flavors of the American string band tradition, this electrifying evening promises foot-stomping grooves, rich harmonies, and masterful musicianship.

Le Vent du Nord are globally-recognized ambassadors of Canada’s Francophone culture and a major creative force within Québec’s progressive folk music scene. The band has released 13 albums and received numerous international awards including Artists of the year at Folk Alliance International & Canadian Folk Music Awards and two JUNO Awards.

The Foghorn Stringband is the gold standard in the old-time American string band music. They draw from old-time, bluegrass, classic country, and Cajun music traditions in an ongoing quest to present a broad span of American historical music.

Canadian Studies Program

213 Philosophy Hall #2308

Website | LinkedIn | Email | Donate

Canadian Studies Program | Univ. of California, Berkeley 213 Philosophy Hall #2308 | Berkeley, CA 94720 US

A first time at Sacramento alert

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An update from the Capital Air Show this October that will feature the Canadian Forces Snowbirds – and also this Canadian pilot.

Greetings!

Get ready for this FIRST time performance at Mather Airport!

Come check out Canadian Kyle Fowler’s unique, bright-yellow 1986 Long-EZ.

This one-of-a-kind performance features smooth aerobatic maneuvers such as loops, rolls, wingovers, and a ‘Humpty Bump’ highlighting Long-EZ’s distinctive canard design, often leaving the audience trying to figure out exactly how the airplane even flies.

Kyle has a lifelong passion for aviation.

He began announcing his father’s, Ken Fowler, Team Rocket Aerobatics performances at the age of 12. He earned his Private Pilot’s License at 21 and currently performs across North America in the one-and-only act in a Long-EZ.

Make sure to stop by his aircraft to meet Kyle in person…his high-energy personality is out of this world!

Have a great weekend,

“Az”

Your California Capital Air Show Insider

2026 California Capital Airshow

Celebrating 20 Years & America’s 250th Birthday with the

United States Air Force Thunderbirds
and the
Royal Canadian Air Force Snowbirds!
October 10-11, 2026

Sacramento Mather Airport – KMHR

Presented by Sacramento County in partnership with the City of Rancho Cordova

______________________________________________________________________

California Capital Airshow | (916) 876-7568 i nsider@californiacapitalairshow.com | https://CaliforniaCapitalAirshow.com/

California Capital Airshow | 10425 Norden Avenue | Mather, CA 95655 US

🪻Spring brings new blooms 🌱

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An item from the Legion Magazine.

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Care over profits: VAC’s privately contracted rehab program under review

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An item from the Legion Magazine.

Veterans Affairs Minister Jill McKnight speaks during a House of Commons veterans affairs standing committee meeting on March 25. [CPAC]

Care over profits: VAC’s privately contracted rehab program under review

STORY BY RICHARD FOOT

By 2024, Mark Bennett had retired from a 27-year career as an army mechanic and was finally getting the help he needed to heal from his longstanding service injuries.

“I have shoulder, neck and back injuries as well as PTSD [post-traumatic stress disorder],” Bennett told Legion Magazine from his home in Chamcook, N.B.

“Working on large vehicles and equipment is pretty rough on the body. I was also in a rollover tank accident where the vehicle flipped—myself and a couple of others were injured—we were training to go to Bosnia.”

Bennett’s rehabilitation was going smoothly under the guidance and funding of Veterans Affairs Canada. He was being cared for by a team of trusted therapists when he was suddenly transferred to the department’s privately contracted rehab program, run by a company called Partners in Canadian Veterans Rehabilitation Services (PCVRS).

Gov. Gen. Michaëlle Jean presents William MacDonald with the Star of Military Valour on April 4, 2008. [Valour in the Presence of the Enemy]

WW II’s HMCS Sackville to be formally recommissioned into the RCN

STORY BY ALEX BOWERS

HMCS Sackville, the last-surviving Flower-class corvette of the Second World War, will soon be recommissioned into the Royal Canadian Navy, a symbolic gesture in recognition of its historic service.

Spearheaded by the Canadian Naval Memorial Trust (CNMT), which has long preserved the now-museum ship, and facilitated by the RCN’s own commemorative endeavours, the ceremony will take place by the Halifax waterfront on May 15, 2026—exactly 85 years after Sackville’s launch.

The roughly 62-metre (205-foot) Sackville, despite its relatively small size compared to other warships of the time, belonged to a class of vessels that British Prime Minister Winston Churchill dubbed the “cheap and nasties” of the Atlantic campaign. Far from perfect in design and capabilities, corvettes nevertheless acted as workhorses on the high seas, escorting Allied convoys and engaging German U-boats. Sackville was no exception on both counts.