Each November, handmade red poppies return to the lampposts along Water Street in Saint Andrews. What began with Brenda Waiwood asking friends to pick up their knitting needles has become a familiar tribute downtown and inspired a community nearly 1,000 kilometres away to create nearly 20,000 poppies of its own.
Waiwood’s idea came from a British newspaper article her cousin shared about a blanket of poppies cascading from a church roof to the ground.
“Having seen that, I thought we could do something like that,” she said. “I just asked friends that I knew who knitted, and they all started doing it.”
Although she had originally planned to decorate the cenotaph in Market Square, the town gave Waiwood the green light to cover the downtown lampposts in red poppies, and the rest is history.
Knitted and crocheted contributions soon began arriving from farther away. Waiwood recalls people with connections to Saint Andrews seeing Facebook posts and sending handmade poppies to join the display.
The tribute has also spread within town. On King Street, the All Saints Anglican Church craft group made its own poppies to display outside the church, while Waiwood and her fellow volunteers continued their work on Water Street.
Among those struck by the Saint Andrews display was Mary Rozenberg who saw it during a visit in 2019.
“What I liked about them were the different patterns of poppies,” she said. “They were stunning.”
Back home in Mississippi Mills, Ont., Rozenberg raised the idea with a municipal committee. The pandemic delayed it, but in 2024, with municipal support, a $200 grant and the local Legion spearheading the effort, the community launched its own project.
Rather than doing a similar lamppost display, Rozenberg adapted the idea for the municipality’s three cenotaphs. The project then expanded to hospitals and seniors’ homes, bringing the tribute closer to veterans.
Volunteers produced more than 10,000 poppies in the first year, over 8,000 in the second and approximately 2,000 this year.
Schoolchildren tied poppies onto banners. Residents, relatives and volunteers worked together in nursing homes. Nursing staff knitted and crocheted during quieter moments on night shifts. Libraries and community programs helped people of different ages and abilities participate.
Rozenberg estimates more than 500 people have contributed.
“After COVID, we needed something to bring the community together, and this became that project,” she said.
As people worked, they shared family stories. For Rozenberg, whose father served in the army, the connection to remembrance is personal. Service in her family continues to this day. Rozenberg’s daughter, Commodore Kelly Williamson, has also dedicated her career to serving her country.
In Saint Andrews, Waiwood hopes more communities will take up the idea.
“I think it’s great. I wish more towns would do it,” she said.
Raised in London, England, Waiwood moved to Saint Andrews in 1977. Remembrance has long mattered to her, and the town’s turnout continues to leave an impression.
“It’s amazing to me that such a small town can have such an amazing turnout for the Remembrance Day service.”
She also sees an urgent reason to keep remembering.
“In this day and age we need to remember that war is not a good thing, and the people who gave their lives gave so much for the rest of us.”
There are still poppies waiting to be assembled into another Water Street display. For anyone wanting to help continue the tradition, Waiwood’s invitation is simple.
“If anybody wants to make poppies, come join us.”
