The NOTL Poppy Project

NOVEMBER 1 - 11, 2024

In 2020, the Niagara Falls History Museum collected thousands of crochetted and knitted poppies from around the world - over 11,000 of them!  After developing their display, they donated some of their leftover poppies for us to contine the movement in Niagara-onthe-Lake.

We gathered our own team of local volunteers and started working on the project in August 2021.  The energetic group decided to add more poppies to the approximately 1,800 we had been given, including some made of fabric to create a poppy garden. The new poppies were hand-made by our volunteers and the installation was designed by them with museum staff. Even the 1st NOTL Rangers (Girl Guides) helped us attach poppies to the netting and some cash sponsorship was provided by the St. David Lion's Club. 

For 2022, we expanded the project to the Court House at 26 Queen Street in Niagara-on-the-Lake.  With generous funding from the Government of Canada, our Poppy Brigade kept busy making another 4,000 poppies. Poppy wreaths were added to many shop doors on Queen Street and poppy wraps adorned lamp posts to create a "poppy path" from the Museum to the Court House. The fabric poppy garden at the Museum was expanded and soldiers' names added to these poppies.

In 2023, the project expanded again with two nets of poppies at the Legion on King Street and more poppy wreaths for the shop doors on Queen Street. 

In 2024, RiverBrink Art Museum in Queenston has been given an installation, along with an updated Legion display and more wreaths for the Queen Street businesses.

A very special thanks goes to Davey Tree Expert Company who donated their crew to attach the installations.

SOME poppy STATS:

• 40 + volunteers
• 2,000 hrs of hand labour
• 7,500 + poppies
• 19,000 zip ties
• 2,500 sq ft of bird netting
• 200 ft of steel cabling
• Days of laughter and remembrance