Waterfall of poppies at Wellington legion took community effort to complete
Volunteers hand-stitched almost 4,300 poppies for the display
A small community in western Prince Edward Island came up with a big way to support their local veterans.
A crowd gathered at the Wellington legion on Saturday to watch as a cascade of nearly 4,300 hand-knitted and crocheted poppies was draped down the side of the building.
Volunteers from across the Island, along with some in Nova Scotia and Ontario, put hundreds of hours into stitching the poppies starting back in March.
"Some of them did 10, some of them did 800," said Kathleen Couture, one of the legion members who spearheaded the project.
"We met here at the legion once a month … and we crocheted together as a group of ladies. it just kept getting bigger and bigger and it was really an amazing event to see the community come together."
The waterfall of poppies will stay up until just after Remembrance Day and will also be lit up at night.
The idea arose after a veteran found a photo on social media of a similar display in Ontario and showed it to the legion's executive.
"We looked at the picture and it took about 30 seconds to say, 'Yes let's do this,'" said legion president Mario Couture.
"If I was alone and in my truck where nobody could see me, I'd shed a tear. It's just beautiful, it's overwhelming, it's a piece of art."
'I got stopped at 800'
While dozens of volunteers knitted the poppies, others helped by donating money to buy the wool.
In fact, they made more handcrafted creations than they could fit on the waterfall. Mario Couture said there are about 1,000 left over that might be used to create a blanket that will be auctioned off in support of the legion's poppy trust fund.
Rejeanne Arsenault of Miscouche may be able to lay claim to the most poppies on the waterfall.
She knitted 800 of them, though her goal was to do even more to show support for veterans like her husband.
"I intended to make 1,000, but I got stopped at 800," Arsenault said with a laugh.
"It's beautiful, and I think it's going to be appreciated."
The waterfall will make for an eye-catching backdrop to the Wellington legion's Remembrance Day ceremonies, and it's a tradition the members hope to continue.
Kathleen Couture said the plans for the project will be "bigger and better" next year.
"The support for veterans is needed all year long, not just on one day a year. This legion really honours the veterans really well," she said.
"We're a really big military family, so for me it's huge. It makes me so happy to see people come together for this."
With files from Victoria Walton