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In honor of Remembrance Day, communities across the Niagara region are dressing their museums, churches and legions in crocheted poppies as part of Project Poppies.
Christine Girardi, assistant curator at the Niagara Falls History Museum, spearheaded the initiative in early 2020 as a community arts project.
“Every program I do here at the museum has to be about history, finding new ways to engage with the community and learning about our past,” Girardi said. “In this case, it's honoring Remembrance Day, honoring all the sacrifices that were made… in the various wars that troops from Canada were involved in.”
After the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the Poppies Project expanded internationally and the group collected 11,000 knitted poppies from across Canada, the United States and Europe.
“It helped us get something done while we were in the pandemic,” said Yvonne Miller, a member of the StickN' Needles Guild, a crochet and knitting group in Niagara.
Niagara museums, churches and legions began approaching Girardi in hopes of creating their own poppy installation.
“When they drive in their cars, they see all these poppies, and hopefully it makes them think a little more about Remembrance Day and these victims,” Girardi said.
“[The knitted poppy] represents every person who fought for Canada,” said Joan Ring, lead exterior artist for the Poppy Project.
Installation will last until November 12.
Other ways Niagara celebrates Remembrance Day
- The St. Catharines service on November 9 will be held at the Port Dalhousie Cenotaph at 11am.
- Another service in St. Catharines will be held on November 11 at the cenotaphs on St. Paul Street at 10:45 a.m. and Merritt Street at 11 a.m.
- The Lincoln Parade will begin at 10:30 a.m. ET on November 11 at the Cenotaph – Jacob Beam Public School, Beamsville.
- Service and parade in Thorold on November 11, starting at the cenotaph in Memorial Park from 10:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.
- The Niagara Falls service on Nov. 11 will be at the Fairview Cemetery cenotaph next to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at 10:45 a.m.
- Services in Niagara-on-the-Lake at the Historic City Cenotaph on Queen Street at 10:45 a.m., followed by the Queenston Cenotaph at 1 p.m.
- There will be two services in Port Colborne on November 11: at the HH Knoll Lakeview Park Cenotaph at 10:30 a.m. and at the Centennial – Cedar Bay Park Cenotaph at 10:45 a.m.
- Welland will hold two services on Nov. 11 at Chippawa Park at 10 a.m. and at the local Royal Canadian Legion branch at 383 Morningstar Ave. at 10:45 a.m.
- Pelham will hold a service in Fonthill at Veterans Park at 10:45 a.m. Nov. 11.
- A Remembrance Day service will be held at the cenotaph at Park and Sugarloaf streets in Wainfleet at 10.45am.
- West Lincoln Township will hold a ceremony at the cenotaph at 172 St. Catharines St., Smithville, at 10:45 a.m.
