Title - Author of "The Men of Maple Leaf" and wife.

Pictured: John and Jellie Piëst, at there home in Haren (Near Groningen), Holland, May 5, 2000.

John was a boy, just turned 17, when Canadian soldiers of the 2nd Canadian Infantry Division, liberated his City of Groningen. At age 65, he wrote the poem, "The Men of Maple Leaf."

In October 1999, John wrote, "In 1995 I wrote a Poem on the inauguration of The Liberation Forest (May, 1995) and proposed to organisers to declamate (declaim) it on various appropriate occasions." He handed out many copies to Canadians in May 1995. It was so well received that he, "decided to turn the Poem into a Scroll, by adding the MARTINI TOWER to it, as the Symbol of the Survival of Groningen."

Then he undertook the momentous task of trying to find all the individual Canadian Veterans who took part in the Liberation of the City of Groningen and to send each a copy of the scroll. Thanks to his dogged determination, to find as many of the veterans as possible, and the financial support of Groningen, he either passed out or mailed out some 960 scrolls. Many veterans had their copy of the scroll framed and as suggested by John Piëst, sent a picture of themselves with the scroll to him.