A Toronto teenager encourages young people to thank our veterans.
Shajahi Rajasingham, a 15-year-old singer, wrote, composed and recorded a song to remind young people why it is so important to participate in Remembrance Day and to thank our veterans.
“I feel like kids my age don’t appreciate or recognize Remembrance Day enough,” says Rajasingham. “I just wanted to put out a song that made them understand, so I made sure the lyrics were powerful enough to tell them, ‘Okay, they do a lot for us. The least we can do is have a day to themselves and appreciate them much more. ‘ “
Rajasingham submitted the song as part of a video contest to the Royal Canadian Legion last year for a Remembrance Day tribute to veterans. Veterans were also encouraged to submit memoirs to act as visuals on the piece. As for the lyrics, he says that he used poems and essays that he wrote in school.
Due to the pandemic, the results of the contest were delayed until the end of June. It was then that he discovered that he won the first provincial place.
“I was very happy,” he says. “Winning first place is something important, but it wasn’t the most important thing I was looking for. I just wanted people to see the video rather than win first place. “
He adds that there is no point working so hard on a video if no one is going to watch it.
“Hopefully, people got the message that we should appreciate our veterans much more. I did not focus solely on the award, but on the message that my video gives. I think more people should understand that most of the things we have now are thanks to our veterans and we have to appreciate that much more. “
Listen to Shajahi Rajasingham’s “Thank You Veterans” below:
Reference-toronto.citynews.ca