Students and professors are working together to make sustainable poppies at Fanshawe College in London, Ontario.
The goal is to raise awareness and funds for veterans every year while keeping poppies out of the garbage.
“We are making poppies from paper infused with poppy seeds from Flanders field,” says Wendy Sperry, founder of the project. “They are meant to be worn for Remembrance Day and then planted in the garden and bloom in the spring as a symbol of hope.”
Poppy Project (Credit: Dan McCracken)
Sperry came up with the idea during her sustainability course at Fanshawe College. “We were trying to make a more sustainable poppy.” She says the idea was to try and make them out of paper fused with poppy seeds and psyllium powder.
“This is our fourth year. We started in 2021 and that was the 100th anniversary of the veteran’s poppy.”
In 1915, Canadian Lieutenant John McCrae wrote the poem, ‘In Flanders Fields,’ which inspired the use of the poppy as the symbol of hope to honour the men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice during World War I. The poppy was adopted as the symbol of Remembrance Day in 1921 by the Canadian Legion.
The Poppy Project also sells a kit that comes with the required items and instructions to make the poppies yourself. Sperry says they started giving the kits to the Thames Valley District School Board in 2021 as an activity for students in class, but also a way for young students to learn about the importance of the poppy.
They started selling the kits for $10, with the goal of $2 to $3 from every kit going towards helping veterans. Each kit can make 30-40 poppies.
“Last year we raised $5,000, and we bought a support dog for a veteran.”
