Maureen Bianchini-Purvis: The Edmonton Founder of No Stone Left Alone

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Each fall, thousands of students walk into military cemeteries carrying poppies, stopping at each headstone to remember a person who served. The idea began with one Edmonton family. Maureen Bianchini-Purvis, also known as Maureen Purvis, founded No Stone Left Alone in 2011, and it has since grown into a remembrance movement in hundreds of communities in Canada and overseas.

A promise kept

Bianchini-Purvis is the daughter of two Second World War veterans. Her mother asked to be remembered on Armistice Day, and Bianchini-Purvis promised she would be. For years she placed a poppy on her mother’s headstone at Beechmount Cemetery in Edmonton, and she passed that tradition on to her own children.

Standing in the Field of Honour, her daughters noticed something: most of the other headstones had no poppy at all. Their question, why only their grandmother’s grave was remembered, started everything that followed.

From one cemetery to many countries

Bianchini-Purvis reached out to the Minister of Veterans Affairs, and a chance meeting with Alberta’s Minister of Education led two Edmonton schools, one public and one Catholic, to take part. The first ceremony, at Beechmount Cemetery in 2011, placed 4,000 poppies.

The program has grown mostly by word of mouth. “We’ve never had to pick up the phone and ask for a community to participate,” she told National Defence’s Western Sentinel. According to the foundation, 17,479 students from 220 communities honoured 114,825 veterans at 336 events in 2025. In 2024, events took place in nine countries. Ceremonies have been held in France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and the United States, and a first ceremony in Asia was planned for Hong Kong in October 2025. By fall 2025, nearly 90,000 students had taken part.

Students beside soldiers

The heart of the program is education. Students, often in junior high, stand beside serving members of the Canadian Armed Forces, place their poppies and have the chance to ask questions. Bianchini-Purvis sees the moment as something that stays with young people. “In that moment, remembrance becomes personal and that legacy of service lives on,” she said. “In a time when history can feel distant, No Stone Left Alone brings it to life.”

Even after more than a decade, the scale still surprises her. “I have days I’m still in shock,” she said. “I go, ‘I had no idea.'”

Recognition

In February 2021, Bianchini-Purvis received the Meritorious Service Cross (Civil Division), one of 98 Canadians honoured with Meritorious Service Decorations in that round. The Governor General’s office describes these honours as “among the highest Canadian distinctions that can be awarded,” and recognized No Stone Left Alone as “a project that engages school children in honouring the sacrifices of Canada’s veterans.” Her hope now is that the work lasts. “I want it to go on beyond me,” she said.

How to take part

The No Stone Left Alone Memorial Foundation is a registered charity based in Edmonton, with a mission “to honour the service and sacrifice of Canada’s military through youth education and the act of remembrance.” Teachers and communities can find ceremonies and ways to get involved at nostoneleftalone.ca.

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