Nine students from Crocus Plains Regional Secondary School are back home after a powerful, all-expenses-paid 10-day journey across Europe.

The trip — which was a first-of-its-kind provincial initiative — aimed to help Manitoba youth connect deeply with the realities of war, sacrifice, and remembrance.

The Crocus Plains delegation included Jay Elias, Xandria Roulette, Mary Akinbode, Cole Hingey, Kaleb Voodre, Elen Abraham, Helly Patel, Alexander Joubert and Mercury Campbell-Spence. They were accompanied by chaperones Shayne Macgranachan and Kat Hunkin.

For Grade 11 student Cole Hingey, the news felt unreal at first.

“I didn’t get an email, so I thought it was a very cruel joke,” he recalled. “It didn’t feel real until we were boarding the plane in Toronto.”

Once on the ground, Hingey v

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