How Port Stanley is showing respect to veterans through handmade creations

The Port Stanley Poppy Project sees hundreds of knitted poppies created by volunteers on buildings, signs, and stores. CTV’s Lauren Stallone explains.

Residents of Port Stanley, Ont., are painting the town red through thousands of knitted and crocheted poppies.

“We have poppies everywhere,” said Kathy Howarth, coordinator of the Port Stanley Poppy Project.

Howarth said she wanted to start the project to honour and remember fallen soldiers, as well as encourage people to visit Port Stanley.

“A lot of us have experience with vets, or we came from families, my family in particular came from Belgium, and my parents were children during the war,” said Howarth. “Port Stanley is such a viable and creative town, we wanted to do that extra spin on it.”

Howarth said she started the project in January.

“I just thought someone should do this,” said Howarth. “Then I also thought, well, maybe that someone should be me.”

With more than 15,000 poppies covering the town, organizers said volunteers have dedicated months of their time to painting Port Stanley red.

They say each poppy takes nearly half an hour to make.

“There are barely over 3,000 people in Port Stanley and the 106 volunteers who worked diligently to create all these poppies have made this vision come to fruition,” said Howarth.

Coordinator Jackie Valotaire said she was blown away by the community’s support on the project.

“The reaction and response that we’ve seen within this community and beyond, on what we have accomplished, has been incredible,” said Valotaire. “It’s brought the whole community closer together.”