By BRIDGET COOK
MAUREEN Smollen has both a personal and community reason for organising an Anzac Day service in Pearcedale each year.
Not only did she revive war commemorations in Pearcedale because the public hall is an old RSL Sub-Branch, but also because Ms Smollen’s father was a Prisoner of War (POW) during World War II.
Ms Smollen, who is the Pearcedale Public Hall secretary, organised what was believed to be the first Anzac Day service to be held in Pearcedale in 2010, after having much success with Remembrance Day services for many years before that.
She said she organised the commemorations as a way to honor the servicemen and women who sacrificed so much for their country.
Ms Smollen was two years old when her father, Thomas Hickey, went away to serve in World War II.
He was a POW for five years in Germany Stalag 13.
He returned home when she was seven years old and said things were never the same for her family.
“I was seven years old when he returned, and he was a complete stranger to me,” she said.
“Mum and Dad split up not long after his return.
“The war broke up so many families.
“This is what gives me the drive to organise our Pearcedale Anzac Day Dawn Service and Remembrance Day Service.
“We owe so much to our veterans, they not only sacrificed their lives for us, but like my father who was a POW for all those years to come home and find that they had nothing in common with their families must have been devastating and a terrible price to pay for our freedom.”
For coverage from the Pearcedale Anzac Day service see next week’s News.
