Colourful poppies adorn Vancouver City Hall grounds for Remembrance Day

A Remembrance Day tradition continues in Vancouver, as school-age children once again do their part to honour those who have and continue to serve Canada.

Carla Pace and her Grade Five students at Shaughnessy Elementary are placing hundreds of poppies outside Vancouver City Hall.

The flowers, made of plastic table clothes, range in colour, with each paying homage to different veterans and groups.

“Over the last number of years we’ve added these feathers, duct-tape feathers, in orange and red to signify the Indigenous veterans who contributed so wonderfully and uniquely to the war effort,” explained Pace, who notes each feather also features a word that carries meaning, chosen by the student.

Remembrance Day poppies of different colours and feathers are placed on the grounds of Vancouver City Hall in honour of those who served Canada. (OMNI News Image)

“We also learned a couple years ago about the purple poppy, which is representative of animal victims in war. So many, many horses and dogs and pigeons and all sorts of animals were used, especially in World War I, and so many millions died. Now the purple poppy represents that so we’ve added that to our collection over the last eight years.”

She says students have also incorporated yellow sunflowers in their display this year, to show support for Ukrainians, who are dealing with war.

Remembrance Day poppies of different colours and feathers are placed on the grounds of Vancouver City Hall in honour of those who served Canada. (OMNI News Image)

Pace tells OMNI News she feels the exercise can be a powerful teaching tool.

“Learning about racism, learning about residential school survivors, reconciliation — these are big concepts for kids. And so finding a way to have a hands-on, project-based style of learning really does make it impactful. It isn’t just filling out a sheet of paper,” Pace said, adding her students are always looking forward to this project.

The elementary school teacher says she was inspired to start this project after she saw a similar display in London.

“It had 888,000 gorgeous red poppies to signify all the veterans from World War I who had passed and I just thought, what an inspiration and how can I do that with students?”

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In Vancouver, Pace tries to keep track of how many poppies her students have made over the years.

She estimates about 6,000 have been created over the past eight years.

“The goal was to cover the whole city block at City Hall because it just has such a spectacular impact,” she added.