REDLANDS women have put their shoulder to the wheel, with a plan to knit and crochet 1000 poppies for WWI Remembrance Day.
Co-ordinator Wendy Womersley from the Women’s Centre said members had knitted 400 poppies even before the program launch on Thursday.
“Our aim is to make 1000 poppies,” she said. “They will be sent to Melbourne to have the stems fitted.”
Ms Womersley said Redland poppies would become part of the 62,000 being made nationally.
The idea was that each poppy would represent one of the fallen soldiers in WWI.
The program also had a special emphasis on the women left behind and the mothers who lost their sons on the bloody fields of Europe during the great war.
She said it was a tragic situation that the bodies of the fallen were never returned to Australia, leaving mothers and loved ones to never know their graves.
The process was started in 2013 by Lynn Berry and Marg Knight who posted their idea on Facebook. It has since taken off, with women all over Australia making poppies.
The poppies will be used to create an installation at the Australian War Memorial, Canberra, which will be designed by Phillip Johnson, a landscape designer who has designed winning works for Britian’s Chelsea Flower Show.
More information is available at 5000 Poppies 2018 Poppy appeal Challenge on Facebook.
It includes suggested patterns which produce poppies strong enough to take stems.