Florenceville-Bristol woman crochets more than 150 poppies for Remembrance Day
Over the past year, Wendy Rea has crocheted more than 150 red poppies by hand to create a special Remembrance Day display at the R.G. “Bun” Veysey Active Living Centre at the Northern Carleton Civic Centre. The project began shortly after Remembrance Day last year. Angie Jamer, who works at the fitness facility, showed Rea, who walks regularly at the centre, an example of a community project in Kentville, Nova Scotia.
A few years earlier, the Kentville community came together to crochet hundreds of poppies and attach them to netting draped over the roof of a local building for Remembrance Day. Jamer shared the project details, including instructions, materials and crochet hook sizes, and asked Rea what she thought.
“I thought we could do something inside the facility, maybe on the wall,” Rea said, and so she ordered the supplies online and got to work, making a couple of poppies each day. Before long, her efforts added up to a large collection of poppies.
As Remembrance Day approached, Rea realized she had to rethink her original plans because they couldn’t attach the display to the fitness centre walls. After some deliberation, they decided to wrap the poppies along the stairway railing at the “Bun” Veysey Centre. Rea used her quilting skills and cut strips of black fabric on the bias so they could wrap around the railings, providing a way to attach the crocheted poppies securely.
Before long, Rea realized that, in her ambition, she had crocheted enough poppies also to create a large poppy wreath, which she decided to display at the Northern Carleton Civic Centre arena.
Each poppy measures approximately four to five inches square and takes about 20 minutes to crochet. While that may sound like a considerable time commitment, Rea says the project was never a hardship.
“I enjoyed it,” Rea said. She initially refused requests to be interviewed about the project.
“I just wanted to do it for [the veterans].”
However, she eventually agreed to share the project details, hoping it might inspire other communities to create their own displays.
“It’s important that we remember those who served,” said Rea.
Her efforts and display remind us that even our simplest ideas and small efforts can make a big impact.
