In April, Air Canada proudly transported 20 Canadian students on an educational trip to Vimy as part of the Vimy Foundation's annual Pilgrimage Awards Program.

The student flew from Montreal to Brussels to learn about Canada's most celebrated military victory and visited Vimy Ridge in France to pay tribute to the brave soldiers who fought there during the First World War.

The group spent a full week in Europe and made daily visits to important First World War sites including museums, cemeteries, and historic battlefields.

The students made blogs posts throughout their education journey and the Vimy Foundation created a photo gallery of the sites visited.

Air Canada is very proud to have helped these students create memories that will last a lifetime. Here's a sample of what they had to say about their journey:

What an experience that has changed my life forever; I am so pleased to have been chosen for the Vimy Pilgrimage Award so I can learn so many things about the First World War and now be able to teach people about my experience and about what these men truly went through during those four deadly years.

- Andrew Poirier, Haldimand County, ON

How should I describe an experience which, in one week, makes us develop deep ties with complete strangers, enables us to understand the good fortune we have to be ourselves in 2019, helps us to grow enormously, draws the past to a close without ever forgetting it and allows us to continue to move ahead?

- Emma Roy, Sainte-Sophie, QC

The program not only exceeded my expectations, but it opened my eyes to the atrocities of the first world war- especially the casualties from both sides.

- Declan Sander, Lethbridge, Alberta

During the Vimy Pilgrimage Award 2019 I learned so much about the First World War and I will never forget this experience - I can't wait to share my stories about this amazing program with others.

- Gillian Huppee, Foam Lake, Saskatchewan

This experience has been truly amazing; I now have a different perspective on the First World War and know that the legacy of the soldiers must be remembered by all so that their sacrifice was not in vain.

- Katie Clyburne, Halifax NS

The Vimy Pilgrimage Award helped me gain a deeper level of understanding on how to approach and analyze history; because we were taught how to think, not what to think.

- Joon Sohn, Surrey BC