By Phil Egan for the Sarnia Journal

It looked so much like the original that it caused a lot of smart people to utter some perfectly silly
comments.

“How did they get it in here so fast?” was a common theme from people who had just walked
past the original in Veteran’s Park.

It was so stunningly reproduced, it was hard to imagine that it could be merely a particle board
replica. The effect was that startling.

The calibre of the craftsmanship becomes a little more understandable when you discover that
one of the drivers behind the project that created the cenotaph replica used in Sarnia’s
Remembrance Day ceremonies at Sarnia Arena was St. Patrick’s teacher Matt Abbott. His
family designed and built some of Canada’s most famous racing yachts. Matt worked in the
family business until age 30.

But Matt, 52, is quick to credit fellow teacher Kelly Gordon and the team of approximately 60
students from multiple disciplines who created the remarkable likeness.

Branch 62 of the Royal Canadian Legion moved this year’s Remembrance Day ceremonies
from Veteran’s Park to Sarnia Arena – a gamble that paid off. The 100 th anniversary of the Great
War armistice suggested larger crowds. An overflow crowd of more than 3,000 attended.

The Legion wanted something built in front of which they could place the memorial wreaths.
Military historian Tom Slater, a former St. Pat’s teacher, suggested Matt Abbott’s manufacturing
design class at community-minded St. Patrick’s High School.

That undetailed request was still in Matt Abbott’s mind the next time he drove past Veteran’s
Park. Gazing at the cenotaph, he thought, “We can build that.”

Detailed measurements, planning, 22 sheets of particle board and hundreds of hours of work
went into the project. Visual Arts instructor Kelly Gordon and her students created the image of
the Great War soldier perched atop the monument by molding chicken wire around a
mannequin and creating a plaster cast of student Garrett Patterson’s face.

A similar cast was produced from a real World War One helmet. Matt Abbott used a CNC router
to painstakingly engrave the names of Sarnia’s fallen soldiers onto the base of the replica, and
spray-painted the replica to create a granite-like effect.

The completed replica was assembled for the first time at Sarnia Arena in the early morning
hours of Remembrance Day.

Legion president Jim Burgess had no expectation that the St. Pat’s finished product would turn
out to be so spectacular. He is hoping to keep the replica for possible future use, but storage is
an issue.

Meanwhile, the formidable young artisans at St. Patrick’s, their triumph now behind them, have
moved on to other community projects with the Knight of Columbus and Communities in Bloom.