Marilyn Sehn is an engaged member of Innisfil's Sandycove community.
Motivated to honour the Sandycove Acres Veterans Association and inspired by Joan Gannon’s work with the Cambridge Poppy Project, Sehn rallied volunteers at the beginning of the summer to crochet or knit poppies for a hanging art project.
The fruits of their labour will be on display at the Sandycove war memorial (43 Weeping Willow Dr.) during the Remembrance ceremony on Nov. 10 at 2 p.m.
“The veterans will put one of their gorgeous wreaths on top of the display also so it will look even better,” the 17-year resident of Sandycove said.
She told InnisfilToday that it takes 10 to 15 minutes to create each poppy — complete with a button.
Fifteen residents of Sandycove joined Sehn to crochet or knit 300 individual poppies. That means, at 15 minutes per poppy, residents volunteered 75 hours of their time to work on this art piece.
Though the poppies were crocheted, the piece was far from complete.
Sehn ran into some difficulty when she tried to affix the poppies to the netting. After troubleshooting, she figured it out.
“I took some red grocery bags and cut (2.5-inch) circles out of them and put the poppy on the front of the fencing and then glued the red circle to the back of the poppy and it worked!”
It took Sehn an additional three weeks to complete the project.
“Still took me a long time and we didn’t have our dining room table for a few weeks,” Sehn said. “(It’s) well worth it to see it now that it’s complete.”
The crocheted art will be donated to the association so they can display it every year for their ceremonies.
“Remembrance Day is important to us as I think it is to anyone who cares about our military members past and present,” Sehn said. “We must never forget their sacrifices for our freedom.”
She said three purple poppies appear on the crocheted art representing the animals who died while employed for military operations.
“(I) decided to fund it all myself,” Sehn said of the art project. “My husband and I will be moving from (Sandycove) to a retirement home in Barrie in the next six months to a year so I wanted this to be my parting gift to our community veterans association,” Sehn said.
“All the ladies just love how it turned out. I know that our vets and other residents will love it, too."
