SYDNEY, N.S. -- Remembrance Day ceremonies are scaled back this year but that won’t stop a group of Cape Breton students from commemorating our veterans and honouring their sacrifices.

While they aren’t able to host veterans for a ceremony, one Cape Breton elementary school will bring its service to the veterans, through a unique virtual salute.

Students and staff at Glace Bay’s John Bernard Croak Victoria Cross Memorial School are remembering veterans the best way they know how.

“It was a school-wide plan from Grades Primary to 5 to honour our veterans virtually,” said Shauna White, principal at John Bernard Croak elementary.

White says, with their school unable to hold their traditional Remembrance Day services, they decided to think outside the box to prepare a virtual salute, which will be shown to veterans at nearby Taigh Na Mara nursing home on Nov. 11.

They’re calling it a virtual Remembrance Day ceremony; from poems read by students to pictures of family members who have served, it’s a project that was pieced together with care.

“They’re going to say, ‘Wow, look at these children. So young, and showing so much respect and gratitude for all those that served,'” says White.

It’s a fitting gesture for a school that is named after a First World War hero from Glace Bay who died in battle more than a century ago.

“I talk a lot about how, since we’re named after a war hero, we have certain expectations here at John Bernard Croak,” says White.

White says students watched the final version of the video for the first time Tuesday, and were pretty happy with the work they did.

“A lot of times they’re taking part in a project, and they don’t get to really sit and see it all,” says White. “Now it’s all put together into a finished product that they can watch over, and over, and over again.”

In a year when fewer people are attending Remembrance Day ceremonies, the students believe it is even more important to show veterans they haven’t been forgotten.

While they can’t be there to say it in person, it’s hoped that the virtual salute will be felt just the same.