" It's been a shared act of Remembrance - getting residents together, talking, sharing memories and taking part in something so very special."
Elaine Wright care services manager
From pop to poppies - plastic bottles have been recycled into hundreds of poppies in a very special act of remembrance at the Princess Alexandra Home for the Blind at Squires Gate, Blackpool.
The project, which has spanned weeks, also marked new life, the birth of a great-granddaughter for one of the residents taking part – and the little girl has been named Poppy.
The plastic poppies created and crafted by residents have now been pinned onto camouflage netting, weighted with sandbags, draping the twin pillars of the entrance to the home run by n-Vision, the Blackpool Fylde and Wyre Society for the Blind, at Bosworth Place.
Care workers cut empty plastic water and pop bottles and then applied heat to shape the poignant petals. Bottle tops form the heart of the poppies.
Men and women at the home, including some who served in the Second World War and others who had lost loved ones to both World Wars, shared their own memories of those distant, yet never forgotten, days as they carefully painted the poppies blood-red and dark of heart, before assembling them.
One of the former servicewomen served in the WRNS, while her husband flew a military glider in the specialist airborne regiment formed by order of Winston Churchill to deliver men, weapons and even tanks to designated landing zones in the thick of the action using stealth, silence and the element of surprise.
Care services manager Elaine Wright said the project had thoroughly engaged staff, support workers, volunteers and residents of the home in a “shared act of Remembrance” ahead of the home’s own service on site to mark the centenary of the Armistice n Sunday.
She praised the initiative and imagination of key care workers – such as Jenny Wison – in coming up with an idea which had “so effectively got residents together, talking, sharing memories and taking part in something so very special.”
Links to the project taking shape can be seen on the charity’s Facebook and Twitter pages -https://www.facebook.com/nvisionnw/videos/330184514426060/and
https://twitter.com/i/moments/1060498338343194624
- Other severely visually impaired men and women living independently in the community but regularly visiting the society's social hub Sharples Hall for activities and socialising took part in another poppy project under the same roof – knitting 300 of the 30k poppies which currently adorn a replica of the Menin Gate in the main entrance of Blackpool Victoria Hospital. Staff from the charity’s Low Vision Centre were due to accompany Blind Veterans and others to a service at the hospital today (Fri Nov 9).
