There has been an amazing response to my appeal for people to make me a
poppy with which to decorate St George's Memorial Church, Ypres. To date the
total stands at 13,500, and the number is still rising! In the picture above
you can see a table covered in poppies made by the SturYouth Club of
Sturminster Newton who have supported this project by making over 500 felt
poppies.
You can also see the pictures of White and Company Removals who so
generously transported the Astroturf that is needed for the project, to
Ypres last week, along with 10,000 poppies. All were safely counted and
packed into large Store and Protect Zip Lock Bags kindly donated by
Lakeland.
We waved away Mark and AJ, who collected our consignment at
midday, however by midnight that night we already had another 850 poppies in
the house, and now, only 3 days later, that number has risen to 3,500!
We are now busy planning the next stage of the project, which will involve
gluing poppies on to the Astroturf and fastening poppies on to plastic
netting with cable ties. We are bringing a small team of volunteers out from
the UK to help with the project, however if any of you are near St George's
on Tuesday 23rd or Wednesday 24th and have an hour to spare or more, do
please come and join us. We need your help! Due to people's generosity and
incredible response we have received more than double the expected number of
poppies, and so it is "all hands on deck". We shall be in the Church Hall
from 9am both days, and anyone who looks in is sure of a warm welcome, and
is likely to be immediately armed with a hot glue gun!
We will return on Tuesday 30th with Justin Aggett and his Manager Nigel
Martin, to see the Fire Brigade hang the Astroturf from the Bell Tower at
15.00hrs. Nigel is Chief Executive Officer of Sheppey Matters, and is
supported by Justin Aggett, the very creative Arts and Media manager who has
been a great support and mentor to me in this venture. We are extremely
grateful to Swale Borough Council for funding this trip. Swale Borough
Council is based in Sittingbourne, Kent, and is the only British town to be
twinned with Ieper.