This event is a time for young people in Wivenhoe to reflect on past lives lost, the effects of war on families, and give thought to the future.

The Hall was packed with a large number of youngsters, and an increasing number of parents too. 

We also welcomed Deputy Mayor, Cllr David Craze and his wife Angela; wife of our MP, Anne Jenkin; our President, Mrs Val Last, and representative of the Royal British Legion (Ladies Section) Mrs Daphne Meyers.

This year she spoke about the Bank of Time, so relevant because of the tragedy of the terrorist act against the World Trade Centre only a few short weeks earlier. See below for the text of Bonnie's talk or click here.

Youngsters also made contributions of prayers and thoughts.  I was particularly struck by a line from Zach’s prayer ‘Banish badness, reclaim goodness’. I think those four words are worth remembering.

This part of the Act of Remembrance finishes with the singing together of that wonderful guiding and scout hymn Kum-by-ar, before all trooping down to the War Memorial in St Mary's Churchyard, led by a band.

The final part of our Act of Remembrance was to join with members of the Royal British Legion, our MP Bernard Jenkin, local Councillors, Police, Wivenhoe St John and others, all gathered around the War Memorial to remember the names of those Wivenhoe men who gave their lives in the two World Wars and the soldier who died in Northern Ireland.  

Peter Hill, Chairman, Wivenhoe Scout & Guide Association

Bonnie's Talk:  The Bank of Time

I want you to think very hard and imagine that there is a magic money box in your house. It can be any shape or size you like – can you see it in your head?  What is so special about this moneybox is when you wake up every single morning and go downstairs to breakfast, you find that it is filled with £86,400.  How wonderful to have so much money and I am sure you will all have lots of ideas of exactly what you would buy first. 

However, as with everything these days, there are conditions that come with this gift, as this is very special money:

-  if you don’t spend all of the money by the end of that day, whatever is left in the money box just disappears,

-  you can’t spend more than the £86,400

-  and you can’t borrow from the money that is coming tomorrow.

That takes quite some thinking about doesn’t it?  I am sure that by now your thoughts are trying to work out how you would make the most of the money that arrives every day.

 What if I were to tell you that we are all given a gift of 86,400 each and every morning to every person here  – it isn’t pounds, but instead 86,400 seconds, the number of seconds in a whole day – 1,440 minutes.

When we go to sleep tonight, we will lose whatever time that we haven’t used from those 86,400 seconds we were given. We can’t borrow time from tomorrow, or save it up for another day in the future when we think we shall be very busy and could do with some extra time.  I am sure you have heard people saying that they could do with 25 hours rather than 24 in a day at hectic times.

What a responsibility we all have. We all go through each and every day not really thinking about how we use our time, and how precious it really is.

What we have to do from this moment forward is to think about how we use our time and to make the most of it.  Think about what you are going to achieve during the day and make sure that you use your time wisely so that you get the utmost in health, happiness and success which are all essential for everyone during our life time. 

Remember as with all things, time for us will stop and this could happen in a millisecond and this is indeed what happened for people at the World Trade Centre buildings in New York on September 11^th and as a result of the many wars and conflicts around the world that are happening while we are all here together.

There are thousands of families where today time will have stopped for their loved ones as a result of a bullet, a bomb, a landmine, hunger, famine, an accident and illness. 

We should all think very carefully about how incredibly lucky we are here in Wivenhoe – we are safe, we can think about how we are going to spend our time tomorrow, we are as sure as we can be that we are going to have a tomorrow.  There are people around the world that are not sure if they will have the next hour and we must be aware of that. 

We must also remember the men that went from Wivenhoe and died fighting in two World Wars, and since, to make this country safe so that we have the freedom to decide how to use our time.  Be thankful that they believed in that freedom to risk and sacrifice years of their lives to enable us to make choices as we do today.

Let’s take a minute to think about the value of time:-

To realise how precious one month is – ask a mother who has given birth to a premature baby 

To realise the value of one week – ask an editor of a weekly newspaper

To realise the value of one minute – ask a person who has just missed a train

To realise the value of one second – ask a person who has just survived an accident

To realise the value of one millisecond – ask the person who won the silver medal instead of the gold at the Olympic Games.

Treasure every moment you have and use it well. 

Treasure it because you shared it with someone special – your parents and people that you love and are close to you.

Treasure it so that you use some of it for doing good, making life better for those around you and overseas in the wider world.

Time waits for no one – think carefully before you waste it.

Bonnie Hill
11th November, 2001

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• Click here for the Wivenhoe Scout & Guide Association home page
• Click here for the Wivenhoe Remembrance home page