One winner of the 2013 Legion Poster and Literary Contests has had a rare opportunity to get his message across—twice. Owen Brown, 17, from Guelph, Ont., wants other young people to appreciate that soldiers and veterans are real people who carried a burden that can only be imagined by today’s youth.

“Those people carried such a great weight,” says Brown, who has had back-to-back first- place finishes in the senior black and white poster category. His poster, submitted by Waterloo Branch, depicts a young soldier and a veteran, standing side by side under the words “The Weight of our Freedom.” Where their shoulders meet are scenes of battles on the ground, sea and air, representing “the duress and pain they went through,” says Brown. They represent the weight of freedom for their generation.