PALMERSTON – What began as a small way to honour war veterans quickly turned into a community-wide project.
Taylor Keunen, chair of the All Aboard Palmerston beautification committee, began the Poppy Project last year after wanting a way to “uniquely honour the veterans in the community.”
Calling all crocheters
To make her idea come to life she posted on social media calling out to any crocheters in the community who were willing to crochet some poppies for a big art installation.
“It blew up so insanely quickly … within less than two months we had about 1,500 poppies done and we able to cover half of Old 81 downtown Palmerston,” Keunen told the Advertiser.
The installation is a large durable net which gets covered in hundreds of poppies to then be attached to the Palmerston Old 81 Steam Engine in the downtown core.
As Keunen is a part of the beautification committee her main goal is to enhance Palmerston in new and creative ways. Not only do the poppies stand out but they hold an “impactful” meaning.
“Everyone was so keen that we bought another few hundred balls of yarn and everyone picked it up … they’ve been crocheting like crazy over the last year,” she added.
The response from the crocheters and the community was “outstanding” and “a real testament to the community and the people who live in it.”
Even Keunen’s toddlers got in on the project by picking up the dropped off poppies on their doorstep all year round.
Some of the poppies were created by a group of 15 volunteers with the final total being around 3,500 crocheted poppies.
As the project was open to all who wanted to join Keunen received poppies made from volunteers in the greater communities of Palmerston.
“We had people reach out from Perth County, Wellington County [and] Huron County and kind of all over,” she said.
Keunen expressed her thanks to volunteers Mary-Beth Wilson, Anna Marie Toner and Liette Will for crocheting and tying hundreds of poppies onto the net this year.
“I was hoping this could maybe be a reality in like a few years but this has exceeded my expectations and hopes of the project within about a year,” she said.
Her goal was to double the amount of poppies from last year so the blanket of poppies could cover the whole train adding to the impact of the piece.
“I really wanted to do something special that could make an impact visually and for the community to honour our veterans especially the ones specifically from Palmerston and Wellington County,” she told the Advertiser.
As Remembrance Day nears the poppy blanket will be on display from Nov. 2 to 15.
“This was a very community-minded and collaborative project and it’s just been incredible having so many different people express interest and eagerness to be involved,” she added.
“It’s been a really beautiful process leading up to the end result.”
Old 81 with this year’s poppies spread across it. Submitted photo
A helping hand
Keunen expressed her gratitude towards the staff and individuals at the Building Bridges Adult Day Program in town as they spent a week tying hundreds of poppies onto the display.
Building Bridges is an inclusive program for adults diagnosed with a developmental disability. Sierra Moreira, owner of the program, stated their group tied about 450 poppies.
“We had a whole box filled with poppies … every single day we got an opportunity to tie poppies so each individual got to contribute,” Moreira told the Advertiser.
She explained the importance of educating the adults in the program about the war veterans and the significance behind celebrating the eleventh.
“Remembrance Day is extremely important to remember the veterans; there’s a lot of individuals in the town of Minto and in the community of Palmerston that have sacrificed their livelihoods to support and fight for our country,” she added.
As for next year’s project nothing is set in stone as right now Keunen has have hit her goal and would like to enjoy it.
