Sergeant (Retired) Darrel Sundholm is a Veteran of the Canadian Armed Forces. He is nominated for his service with the King’s Own Regiment Veterans’ Association and his work with the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR).
In 1996, he joined the 50/14 Veterans Association. He is responsible for changing the name of the association to the King’s Own Calgary Regiment Veterans Association to be more inclusive to post-war Veterans. When he joined the association, the participation of Second World War Veterans was decreasing and he encouraged younger Veterans to join the association’s executive, ensuring association activities continued.
Sergeant Sundholm has organized Veteran school visits and worked with post-secondary institutions to document first-hand accounts of Veterans’ experiences with the 14th Canadian Tank Regiment.
As an employee of the CPR, he was the representative on a coach project honouring Canada’s last living Victoria Cross recipient, Sergeant Smoky Smith VC. During his free time, he edited story boards, liaised with contacts and gathered artifacts. He was key in having the 1936 steam coach named after Sergeant Smoky Smith VC. The coach was inaugurated in 2003 on a trip that included the Victoria Cross recipient.
Sergeant Sundholm is also founder and operator of the CPR’s Afghanistan Memorial Plaque Program. This program honours soldiers who died in Afghanistan through the donation of a bronze plaque to families of the fallen and to their former high schools.
Lastly, he organized the creation of a cenotaph memorial to honour three Canadian Pacific Railway employees who won the Victoria Cross in the First and Second World Wars.