The small Saskatchewan town of Saltcoats marked Remembrance Day by donating one of its most valuable assets: time. Community members spent countless hours sewing banners and crocheting a poppy wrap around the town’s cenotaph. “We met up three times and held sessions where everybody brought their crocheting, sat around together, worked on [the project],” said Joan Michael of the Saltcoats Public Library. Organizers of the poppy project estimate that about 2,000 poppies were made by volunteers. “We have a very strong community spirit in Saltcoats, and part of that is honouring our veterans. Everybody loved the idea of being able to [have a personal experience],” Michael said. Saltcoats MLA and Saskatchewan Minister of Trade and Export Development Warren Kaeding attended the Remembrance Day service. While he has participated in many ceremonies throughout his constituency, he said the crocheted poppy wrap was unlike anything he had seen before. “I’ve never seen anything like this anywhere in North America. I was speaking with some of the women who did the incredible work, and they told me the idea originated somewhere in Europe. It’s amazing how great ideas can now be shared literally around the world,” he told CTV News. The community, known in the area for its artistic spirit, has a longstanding tradition of creating handcrafted tributes for Remembrance Day. Nearly a decade ago, volunteer Wendy Hume came up with the idea of displaying banners inspired by the poem In Flanders Fields along the road leading to the cenotaph. “When I made the banners, one thing I wanted was for the poppies to be loose enough to move and blow [in the wind],” Hume said. Since then, community members have told her the banners have become an important part of the annual ceremony. “Now we’ve got something extra at our cenotaph and in the community. It’s a meaningful act of remembrance and tribute,” she said, adding that soon it’ll be time to sew new banners. Hume said she never sought recognition for the project. Instead, it was her own way of honouring those who served and sacrificed for Saltcoats and Canada. On Remembrance Day, dozens of residents walked alongside the banners toward the cenotaph, now covered in crocheted poppies. At 11 a.m., they observed two minutes of silence before wreaths were placed at the Community Hall and the names of Saltcoats’ fallen heroes were read aloud. “The community feels it’s important that every person who was lost has their name said out loud and is remembered,” said organizer Shirley Pearson. A mother of two military sons and a grandmother to one, Pearson has dedicated her time to organizing the annual service. As she looked at the wreaths placed on the stage at the community hall, she fought back tears. “The fact that people come out for the Remembrance Day service means so much. The whole community is here, along with people from the surrounding area and the school. I’m very proud to be part of this community,” she said. It wasn’t only adults who contributed to the day’s tributes. Students from Saltcoats School also took part, drawing and colouring pictures, carrying the community’s hope that the meaning of Remembrance Day is carried forward to the next generation. It was a day of remembrance where the sacrifices of veterans were honoured in a way that felt close to home.
