Calgary teen's video project earns him trip to Vimy Ridge

A Calgary teen has won a social media contest to travel to Vimy Ridge, the site of the historic battle that cost the lives of thousands of Canadians during the First World War.

Lloyd Templeton, 16, was one of many young Albertans that entered the Spirit of Vimy contest, part of of Lt.-Gov. Lois Mitchell's History and Heroes Foundation.

Entrants were asked to make a YouTube video linking the history of Vimy Ridge to the future, using songs, poetry, dancing or other types of art, exploring personal or local community connections to the battle.

Templeton created a video featuring his watercolour paintings depicting the battle, along with a poem and other details.

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"Originally I just knew the basics," said Templeton. "One of my big passions is art, but paintings by themselves aren't really enough so I had to figure out a way to piece it all together and really a tell a story."

He says he did lots of research about Vimy Ridge to help him with his paintings, which is when he stumbled across a poem online written about a soldier from Alberta.

"I found a poem from an unknown author written about William Henry Bell who was an 18-year-old farmer who fought at Vimy," said Templeton.

He then read the poem and told the story of William Bell over a slide show of his paintings and historic documents set to music, which took hours of editing and production.

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The slick five-minute video project won first place in the 14- to 17-year-oldcategory.

"This was something that I'd never tried before and now I have those skills for the rest of my life. And of course I learned about Canadian military history and Vimy Ridge," he said.

"I learned that history is something we should all try and make a connection to."

He says winning the contest was a special moment in his life.

Templeton will make the trip to Vimy in 2018 and anticipates a moving experience when he gets there.

"I think it's going to be a moment of real national pride, it's going to really cement my belief that Canada's the best."