The Skegness branch of the Royal British Legion has launched an appeal for residents to make hundreds of poppies for a dramatic display in the town for Remembrance.
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00:00 I'm Louise Clarkson, I'm the Secretary for the Skegnes Branch of the Royal British Legion.
00:10 Now we're in the Hildreth Centre, it's just before Easter so normally it would seem a
00:17 little bit early to be starting a Poppy Appeal.
00:21 Absolutely.
00:22 What we're hoping to do is to have a community project that involves all of our community
00:29 coming together and making for us poppies.
00:33 The poppies can be made in any medium, whether that's knitted or like the Derbyshire Children's
00:40 Fair who are doing stones and they're painting stones, any medium at all.
00:45 And we need them, hundreds of them, by the end of September.
00:49 What are you going to do with these poppies?
00:52 We have plans to have a display of all these poppies during the Poppy Appeal period and
00:59 Remembrance Day.
01:01 We can't share where they're going to be at the moment because we're still dotting the
01:06 i's and crossing the t's, but it is a community project and it will be somewhere very dramatic.
01:14 Now every year Skegness does have a Poppy Parade, a Remembrance Day Parade, don't they?
01:24 It's grown to be quite a large event every year, but you're looking to do something a
01:30 bit more special aren't you?
01:31 We are.
01:32 We hope that what this achieves with the community's support and all of their creations will be
01:39 reportable as Lincolnshire's perhaps finest for this year as a demonstration of remembrance.
01:47 Now you've been working very hard to build the branch haven't you?
01:51 And get the word out that anyone can actually join and support you?
01:57 Absolutely.
01:58 We are always on the lookout for more members.
02:00 We have a lot of veterans that are with us.
02:03 We don't have so many younger veterans who I know will be around.
02:08 We're not a stuffy old place to come.
02:10 We are trying to make it much more enjoyable and we're getting involved with more community
02:14 events.
02:15 So if you're out there, even if you just want to chat and you need a bit of companionship
02:20 because you're home alone, come and see us.
02:24 We meet every Monday at 7.30 at New Park Club which is the Skegness RBL's home and new members
02:31 are always welcome.
02:33 Now for anyone who wants to get involved in making poppies, what would they do and
02:41 where would they be able to bring them?
02:43 Okay so you can see behind me we've got a poppy box that's been created for us and you
02:49 can drop your poppies here.
02:51 You can drop them at Richard's Funeral Home on Lincoln Road, the New Park Club on Scarborough
02:57 Avenue which I say is our home and the Exservicements Club on the front.
03:02 Equally, beside this box there is a poster and that's got information for my email address
03:09 so if you want someone to come and collect them that's absolutely fine.
03:12 We've already been given quite a few but we need hundreds and as I said before any medium
03:18 is fine.
03:19 Skegness Grammar School are using the base of two litre bottles with the four poppy petals
03:28 and they're bashing them down and painting them.
03:30 We've got Derbyshire Children's Home are painting rocks, poppies on rocks and all of our knitters
03:36 throughout the community, St Matthew's Church have started theirs, St Clement's Ladies,
03:42 they're all knitting, knitting, knitting, crocheting, crocheting.
03:45 It can be any medium provided it's going to weather the storm so if you do make a paper
03:49 one laminate it and we can use it.
03:53 I just want to say thank you to Peggy who is 89 and is already knitting away furiously.
03:58 We've got the old Forge Pottery on board and they're making some pottery poppies so absolutely
04:05 anything use your imagination.
04:07 They can be dropped here, they can be dropped at the other places as mentioned but the poster
04:10 is here and you may see the poster in other areas because we are trying to get it out
04:15 there.
04:16 It certainly sounds like it's going to be an impressive display this year.
04:22 Why should people still remember?
04:25 Because it's not about the initial thought of remembrance, World War One, World War Two,
04:30 the big conflicts that many people have lost loved ones to or know of somebody who was
04:36 changed by their experience.
04:38 We've had so many conflicts since then, we've had the conflict in Croatia, Yugoslavia as
04:44 it was, we've got the Gulf conflicts, we've had the Falklands, they're all conflicts and
04:49 they're all still going and our military personnel are still attending these kinds of events
04:53 and it can be traumatising.
04:55 It's not about an old man in a blazer, it's about now as well.
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