10K hand-knit poppies displayed at the Dartmouth Cenotaph

Touching tribute: 10K hand-knit poppies 10,000 hand-knit poppies are a labour of love and an ever-growing tradition in Dartmouth, N.S.

Ten-thousand hand-knit poppies were taken from the Sanctuary Arts Centre and taken to the fence surrounding the Dartmouth Cenotaph on Monday.

For the fifth year in a row, residents of the Oakwood Terrace Nursing Home and volunteers knitted and crocheted poppies.

This marks the fifth year in a row the residents of the Oakwood Terrace Nursing Home and community volunteers knit and crocheted poppies. Chantal Beaulieu has organized the project since 2020 and says more and more poppies are created every year.

"In our first year we were able to come up with 2,000 poppies,” says Beaulieu. “The following year we had 4,000 and then we went to six the third (year). Last year there were seven and this year we presented over 10,000 poppies.”

Beaulieu says this project means so much to the residents, especially those who have a personal connection to the First and Second World Wars.

"It really resonates deeply with them because many of them were firsthand witnesses of the war whether they had an uncle or a brother that served. We had some living veterans when we started this project,” says Beaulieu.

The poppies, which were originally displayed outside the Oakwood Terrace Nursing Home, were transferred to the Sanctuary Arts Centre on Oct. 31. They will remain on display on the fences and area surrounding the Dartmouth Cenotaph until Remembrance Day.

“When I see them, I think of my grandfather who served in (the Second World War) and my brother who served in Afghanistan and now I have a son who serves and just returned from his first tour in a NATO mission in Latvia,” says Beaulieu.

This project means a lot to the volunteers as well.

"To recognize the sacrifice all the veterans and the men and women are serving today, we need to recognize that to keep our country safe,” says Allan Cox, who has been volunteering for two years.

Beaulieu says they created a wall of honour this year to make the event more inclusive for modern veterans.

"(It) has names of individuals that have served past or present and these were names that were submitted to us from the community,” says Beaulieu.

One name on the call is Tina Prosser-Cameron, who is a veteran and also a volunteer with the project.

"I did 27 years in the military, and it is a beautiful cause, and I believe in it. I fought for my country and a lot of people died for their country and that is what this is all about,” says Prosser-Cameron.

Another volunteer, Mildred Jackman, has knitted hundreds of poppies over the past three years.

"As I knit one. I think about what those men fought for and our freedom,” says Jackman.

Beaulieu hopes they add 200 additional names to the new wall of honour next year and, of course, more poppies to the display.

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