Care home crocheters create poppy waterfall for Remembrance Day

Residents, staff and family members from John Wills House Care Home, crocheted 3,730 poppies to create the poppy waterfall to mark Remembrance Sunday.

After crocheting the poppies, each individual poppy had to be hand-sewn onto a football goal net, which was then suspended from the first-floor window of the care home to create the waterfall effect.

The poppy waterfall took five months to make and is approximately sixteen feet high by seven feet wide.

"Social hub for the care home"

John Wills House Business Deputy Manager, Sue Robinson, said: “We originally set a target of 1,000 poppies which was quickly reached, so a new target of 2,000 poppies was set.

"There was a competition between the different teams at the care home as to who could crochet the most to create some friendly rivalry and the volume of poppies carried on from there.”

“The next challenge was to sew all the poppies onto the goal net, which was kindly donated by a colleague’s sister. The downstairs lounge was transformed into a temporary sewing club, with anyone who was interested in helping welcome to drop in and sew on a few poppies.

“We had colleagues who’d arrived early for their shift sewing, colleagues sewing after they’d finished their shift, and the admin team sewing in their lunch hours and coming in at weekends.

"We also had relatives and friends who were visiting their loved-ones at the care home and the families of members of staff dropping in to help out, as well as residents from the retirement village and even ex-members of staff.

"It was wonderful to see how everyone embraced the idea and the sewing room became a real social hub for the care home."

Arts and craft project

Sue and her admin team wanted to start a series of arts and crafts sessions for residents to create a project for Remembrance Day, which residents of all abilities at the care home could contribute to.

Residents created the poppies at the craft sessions run by the admin team, with residents who were unable to crochet making paper poppies, which were displayed across the home.

Knitted poppies were also sold in the care home’s reception to raise money for Help for Heroes and Royal British Legion.

House Lead, Tina Howe who individually crocheted an incredible 1,000 poppies received a prize on behalf of the Orchards Unit as winners of the competition for crocheting the most poppies.

While local resident, Rita Harris had the honour of sewing the final poppy onto the waterfall in recognition of her years of valued support for the care home.

A very poignant tribute

John Will House Care Home Manager, Wendy Leaman said: “I would like to congratulate all our residents, their relatives, St Monica Trust colleagues and everyone involved in the poppy waterfall for their amazing contribution to this project.

“As I reflect on the individual nature of each poppy, the different shapes and sizes seem to me very poignant as they represent those individual men and women who gave their lives in service of our country.

"My special thanks must go to Sue and her administration team who have given many hours of their own time to make this a reality, and also the Westbury Fields’ Gardening Team who helped assemble the waterfall.”