Go Grannies!

Granny Brigade honoured by Canada's top soldier
www.cbc.ca Jun 8 2006

Gen. Rick Hillier, the chief of Canada's defence staff, presented a special award to a special brigade on Wednesday — the Granny Brigade!


Granny Brigade founder Gladys Osmond was honoured with a Medallion for Distinguished Service.
For years now the small group of women in rural Newfoundland have been doing their part to boost the morale of Canadian soldiers serving overseas.

Gladys Osmond is the founder of the brigade. One wall of her Springdale home is full of thank you notes from Canadian soldiers stationed around the world.

She writes letters to Armed Forces personnel in the field.

"I write about what's happening in Springdale, if the birds are singing," she said.

The idea started when Canadian soldiers went to Bosnia as part the UN peacekeeping mission in 1991.

Since then it's grown to be big — very big. Last year, the Granny Brigade sent over 10,000 letters.

The soldiers write back, thanking the grannies for the contact from home. Some of the soldiers have even stopped by to visit.

So in honour of all that work over the years, the man at the top of Canada's military came to Springdale to tell Osmond and her Granny Brigade how much it all means.

She may not be a soldier, said Hillier, but all those letters over all these years earned Osmond a medal from her country.

Osmond says she didn't do it for the praise. The medal, the Medallion for Distinguished Service, is nice, but tomorrow it's back to work on the letters.