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Waterloo Chronicle | Thursday, November 10, 2022 | 16 waterloochronicle.ca 5 # The Cambridge Poppy Project - a community art display created with handmade poppies to honour veterans - was the brainchild of Jayne and David Herring, who saw a similar project in Niagara and wanted to bring it home. The aim was to gather 10,000 knit or crocheted poppies from the com- munity for outdoor displays prior to Remembrance Day 2021. In the end, a whopping 33,615 poppies were collected. Sg eee REMEMBRANCEDAYE Sa Ree The project was launched to the community in January 2021, the 100th anniversary year of the poppy as a symbol of remembrance. Jayne Herring said poppies came in not only from Cambridge residents and those in the surrounding area, but from as far away as Scotland, Australia and South Africa. “We have been blown away by people's support for this project and obviously their love for our veterans. | mean, that’s the whole thing in a nutshell, right?” Herring said during an interview last year, adding the poppies were still coming in and they were thinking of giving them to the legions. With 15 installations bursting with blossoms, there were still excess poppies. The first two displays were on the Light Armoured Vehicle (LAV) outside the Galt armoury, and at the Jenny Wren statue outside the Queen's Square library branch of Idea Exchange. On the LAV, 158 large poppies are attached to netting, symbolizing the number of soldiers who died in Afghanistan. That memorial display has remained with the armoury. Installations went up at all three main library branches in Galt, Preston and Hespeler, as well as old city hall, Central Park in Preston, the King Street bridge in Preston - courtesy of Sue Sturdy, akin to her knit installation on Galt’s Main Street bridge in 2010 - and the Hespeler Heritage Centre. “We've really tried to make sure that this is spread through- out Cambridge,” Herring said of the 2021 project. She admitted the project was daunting at times, as the I join fellow Canadians in reflecting on the peace and freedom we have as a result of sacrifice and vigilance. it k . sat poppies kept flowing in for the seven-member committee. But with the help of the community, all the installations were ready to go. The website www.cambridgepoppyproject.ca facilitated plotting a poppy tour route. Sections of the displays were given to senior elemen- tary and secondary schools, as well as retirement homes and legions for their own Remembrance ceremonies in the future. And to think, all this started with a car ride to Niagara. “When | say to my husband, ‘Let's go for a drive,’ what do you think his reaction is?” Herring said with a laugh. — Excerpted from the original Cambridge Times article, October 2021 Remembering the fallen heres who gave ther lives for owe [U-S/\VEN gd Bete) st) le 1248 VICTORIA ST. N. KITCHENER (519) 585-1500 | info@ @usaveflooring.ca | www-.usaveflooring.ca