Keen Narooma-area knitter Joan Bolan from Corunna has already made 50 red poppies for the 5000 Poppies project and is encouraging others in the region get involved.
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The project is hoping to cover the Australian War Memorial grounds with a sea of up to 62,000 knitted and embroidered poppies on Remembrance Day 2018, in honour of the fallen Australians in WWI.
It will be the centenary of the end of World War I on November 11, 2018 and the 62,000 figure relates to the number of Australians killed in the Great War.
Mrs Bolan said she became aware of the project after seeing it featured on television some months back and is now hoping others in the Narooma will also become involved.
“I’ve been knitting since I was six years old and people in my family were wounded and killed in the war, so I thought it would be a nice thing to do it for the soldiers,” she said.
“I would also like to spread the word for other people to start knitting, it’s the least we can do for all the soldiers who put their lives on the line for the rest of us.”
Narooma RSL sub-branch president Paul Naylor has also been notified and said he would support the project in anyway he could, even possibly making Club Narooma the local collection point if other local knitters get involved.
The Narooma community has its own red poppy themed project, the annual Red Poppy Ball that raises funds for homeless war veterans.
For the 5000 Poppies project, there are a number of different knitting patterns available for people to base their poppies on, but Mrs Bolan decided to choose the simplest pattern so that she can complete a larger number of poppies.
“You can make 12 poppies out of a $2.50 ball of wool, so maybe people could donate some wool,” she said.
Poppies can be knitted, crocheted or made out of material and once set in will need to have stalks fitted so that can placed on the grounds of the War Memorial.
The 5000 Poppies Facebook group is also another way to stay involved and contribute.
A similar project saw 888,246 red ceramic poppies placed around the Tower of London in 2014, representing the number of Commonwealth personnel who died in WW1. Narooma locals visited this amazing display