By Times Chronicle Staff
The Osoyoos and District Museum Poppy Project, now in its third year, is growing in leaps and bounds as it moves ever closer to its goal to create a poppy banner that will encircle the gymnasium at Sonora Centre for the Remembrance Day service.
Spearheaded by Executive Board member, Martha Collins, and in partnership with the Royal Canadian Legion Branch 173 began with friends and family crocheting poppies with the goal of making a banner to display at the local Remembrance Day Ceremony.
The Osoyoos and District Museum’s Remembrance Day display which features a small portion of the Poppy Project.
The original banner was such a success that in 2023 Collins led a ‘learn to crochet’ workshop at the museum and worked with the local Girl Guides, getting more locals involved in creating poppies. Now in 2024, more people are inspired and involved in the project and the banner has expanded to include knit, fabric, and felt poppies.
The museum has held “learn to crochet” Poppy Project workshops, and taken the workshops to the Girl Guides, Sparks and Embers.
Ginny Greb of the Osoyoos Museum Society said the project is expecting to add about 400 new poppies to the banner this year. A section of the banner is now on display with the Remembrance Day exhibit at the museum. The project and the banner has expanded to include knit, fabric, and felt poppies.
Collins was inspired by the Cambridge, Ontario Poppy Project ultimately kicking off the Osoyoos Poppy Project in 2022.
