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To honour Remembrance Day, communities across the Niagara Region dress their museums, churches and legions in crocheted poppies as part of the Poppy Project.
Christine Girardi, an assistant curator at the Niagara Falls History Museum, led the initiative in early 2020 as a local community art project.
“Every program that I do here at the museum needs to be rooted in history, finding new ways to engage the community and learning about our past,” said Girardi. “In this case, honouring Remembrance Day, honouring all the sacrifices that have been made… for the various wars that have involved troops from Canada.”
The Poppy Project expanded internationally after the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and the group collected 11,000 knitted poppies from all over Canada, the U.S. and Europe.
“It helped us to have something to be accomplished while we were in the pandemic,” said Yvonne Miller, part of the StickN’ Needles Guild, a crochet and knitting group in Niagara.
Museums, churches and legions in Niagara began reaching out to Girardi, hoping to have their own poppy installation.
“When they’re driving in their cars, they see all these poppies, and hopefully that sparks them to think a little bit more about Remembrance Day and those sacrifices,” said Girardi.
“[The knitted poppy] represents each individual who fought for Canada,” said Joanne Ring, exterior lead artist of the Poppy Project.
The installations will be up until Nov. 12.
Other ways Niagara is commemorating Remembrance Day
- A service in St. Catharines on Nov. 9 will take place at the Port Dalhousie cenotaph at 11 a.m.
- Another service in St. Catharines will be held on Nov. 11 at the cenotaphs on St. Paul St. W. at 10:45 a.m. and Merritt Street at 11 a.m.
- A parade in Lincoln will start at 10:30 a.m. ET on Nov. 11, at the Cenotaph – Jacob Beam Public School, Beamsville
- Service and parade in Thorold on Nov. 11, starting at the cenotaph at Memorial Park from 10:30 a.m. to 12 p.m.
- Niagara Falls service on Nov. 11 to be held at the Fairview Cemetery cenotaph next to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at 10:45 a.m.
- Service in Niagara-on-the-Lake at the historic town’s cenotaph on Queen Street at 10:45 a.m. and then 1 p.m. at the Queenston cenotaph
- Port Colborne to hold two services on Nov. 11, at the H.H. Knoll Lakeview Park cenotaph at 10:30 a.m. and Centennial–Cedar Bay Park cenotaph at 10:45 a.m.
- Welland is hosting two services on Nov. 11 at Chippawa Park at 10 a.m. and at the local Royal Canadian Legion branch in 383 Morningstar Ave. at 10:45 a.m.
- Pelham hosts a Fonthill service at Veterans Park at 10:45 a.m. on Nov. 11
- A Remembrance Day service will be held in Wainfleet at the cenotaph on Park and Sugarloaf streets at 10:45 a.m.
- The Township of West Lincoln will host a ceremony at the cenotaph on 172 St. Catharines St., Smithville, at 10:45 a.m.
