Remembrance needs to feel personal.
This happens when students see themselves in the story. When the person they are researching lived in their community, walked the same streets, or sat in the same classrooms.
Faces to Names is a Canadian remembrance education platform designed to make that possible.
Our mission is to make remembrance meaningful, personal, and relevant for students across Canada.
Remembrance becomes meaningful when it’s experienced, not just observed.
Too often, remembrance feels distant or abstract, something to learn about, rather than something to connect with.
By guiding high school students in structured research of the people behind the names on their local memorials, Faces to Names transforms remembrance from a moment of silence into an active process of discovery, connection, and responsibility.
Through this work, students come to understand the value of peace, the cost of freedom, and the importance of carrying these stories forward.
Faces to Names is grounded in community.
Every name on every memorial represents a life connected to a family, a school, and a community. When students uncover those connections, remembrance becomes immediate and real.
Each student contribution adds to a growing body of local knowledge, reconnecting families with stories, supporting community history, and making remembrance visible and accessible in new ways.
How Faces to Names Makes This Possible
Faces to Names is designed as a shared effort between students and communities. Families, libraries, museums, and local organizations contribute insight context, photos, and materials that deepen and strengthen each profile.
As part of their research, students may discover gaps or inconsistencies in existing records. They are encouraged to investigate further and, where appropriate, contribute to clarifying the public record, giving their work real-world value.
Information about those who served in the First and Second World Wars is spread across many sources that are often difficult to access and interpret. Faces to Names addresses this challenge through a guided research process that enables students to navigate, interpret, and synthesize information from many sources, transforming fragmented records into meaningful, verified profiles.
What This Creates
The result is a growing, accessible body of knowledge that strengthens a shared sense of Canadian identity rooted in community, history, and memory.
The face behind
Faces to Names.
Karen Hunter
Founder, Faces to Names
Karen Hunter is a social entrepreneur and the Founder of Faces to Names, a national initiative transforming how students engage with remembrance in Canadian classrooms.
Her work began with “In Our Fathers’ Footsteps,” her not-for-profit initiative that brought descendants of Canadians who served during the Second World War to the Netherlands to walk the troops’ paths through fields, forests, and liberated villages.
That experience led to the creation of The Canadian Remembrance Torch, designed and built by engineering students at McMaster University. Having participated in official ceremonies in Canada and overseas, the Torch is now recognized as Canada’s national symbol of gratitude for peace and freedom, and represents remembrance carried forward from generation to generation.
Through this work, Karen saw the impact of immersive experiences in making remembrance personal. Faces to Names extends that insight into the classroom, giving students the opportunity to uncover and share the stories behind the names in their own communities.
The Torch is the symbol. Faces to Names is the action.
The organisation behind Faces to Names.
Faces to Names is a registered Canadian charity dedicated to engaging a new generation of Canadians in remembrance through education, research, and community connection across the country. The organization is governed by a volunteer Board of Directors.
Want to be part of it?
Whether you are a teacher, student, community member, or simply a Canadian who believes these stories matter, there is a place for you in Faces to Names. Join us in bringing remembrance to life.
For registered classrooms participating in Faces to Names