The town of Conception Bay South in Newfoundland has come up with a completely new means of honouring local veterans. It has signed a Veteran and Family Community covenant, a public pledge to honour, recognize and support local veterans, military personnel and their families.

It is the first of its kind, says Veterans Affairs Canada , whose minister, Steven Blaney, was on hand with Newfoundland-Labrador Senator Elizabeth Marshall, community leaders, veterans and Canadian Forces members at the signing ceremony in October.

The Veteran and Family Covenant was “developed in an effort to reach out to communities and build on their efforts to be ‘veteran friendly.’ It is a formal and public commitment of support by provinces, organizations or local communities to veterans and their families,” says the message on the  Conception Bay South website.

The ceremony was held at the Monument of Honour, flanked by striking new bronze statues of members of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment—a member of the Blue Puttees of the First World War standing sentry and a modern female soldier standing guard. Many photos of the creation of the statues, and of other statues in development for the Conception Bay South monument, are on artist Morgan Macdonald’s Facebook page.