A local company put its new technology to good use recently and has gifted its creation to the Morden Legion.
Nathan Knight and Steve Hiebert, who work for Simmons Multimedia, have been working with a new 360-degree camera. With it, they have produced a virtual tour of Morden’s Confederation Park.
Videographers Nathan Knight (second from left) and Steve Hiebert (third from left) with Legion members (from left) Bob Frost, Tammy Petkau, and Larry Davidson at the viewing of their 360-degree tour of Confederation Park
The downtown green space features a number of plaques highlighting stories of some of the area’s war veterans along a couple other displays and the community cenotaph.
“The camera was purchased for a particular project, but we thought what else could we do with this camera?” said Knight, noting the inspiration soon came with their office being right across from the park. “I wondered if we could offer a tour of Confederation Park where people could walk through the park and they could learn about some of the history of the wars and local people who fought in the wars.
“Once we had it, we thought what are we going to do with it, and it made sense that the Legion would be interested.”
“It’s a great gift for the Legion,” said Larry Davidson, who serves as the Legion’s honours and awards chairperson. “I think it means a lot to us in the sense that even students can use this now as a stepping stone to learning more.
“It’s a great learning tool,” he added. “Our population now doesn’t understand. We’ve never had to do this. We have never fought in a war like this.”
The virtual tour will be available online at mordenlegion11.ca, and it was suggested it could possibly even be incorporated into the community Remembrance Day service program next year.
Morden has something special with Confederation Park and all of its displays, so Knight and Hiebert were keen to feature it.
“The project became a little bigger than what we expected,” noted Hiebert. “It was a lot of work, but it was worth it. It was great.”
“It’s a great space,” said Knight. “I think everybody in Morden has been in Confederation Park, but I would venture to say a majority of people haven’t read the plaques … so this gives people a way to do that from the comfort of their homes too.”
“You might get a taste of it online with the virtual tour, but then you might want to go get a look at it first hand and get the real experience,” noted Hiebert, who added it was interesting for him personally “to go through the park and study every plaque … it was a lot of fun to do.”
“It does showcase our abilities now as well,” said Knight. “There was also that thought behind it, but we thought the Legion could make use of it.”
