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Fond Farewell to Loren

Billie-Jo, Connall and Kyra, who make up Key Group Poppy Posse, met at the Berwick Detachment of the Northumbria Army Cadet Force where they began their Key Adventure.

After being inspired by a Remembrance Day art installation in a North East village, the three cadets had hopes of creating something that could help encourage their local community to remember fallen heroes.

The group got to thinking and came up with the ambitious idea of recycling plastic bottles to create hundreds of handmade poppies that would decorate the local Drill Hall, a building built for army volunteers before WW1.

The three youngsters had to work hard to prepare for their Key Panel. They had to deal people in power and authority in order to use the Drill Hall for the centrepiece of their art installation and they had to negotiate with Berwick Youth Project to use their space for free. The group needed to think about how they could gather enough plastic bottles in order to make their installation effective and they needed to search for information and get advice on how they could get others involved in the set up.

The Poppy Posse were well equipped for panel and answered all questions extremely well and it was no surprise that the panel gave them to go ahead to do their Remembrance Day project.

The hard work began after panel as the young cadets embarked on a 9 month journey to handmake their own poppies. After recycling 500 plastic bottles, Billie-Jo, Connall and Kyra shaped and painted them into poppy petals, while using the bottle lids for the centre of the flower.

The youngsters even wrote messages to the fallen soldiers who lost their lives during WW1 and WW2 on the leaves that they made from spare parts of the bottles.

After two months of creating the poppies and two days of building, their ‘Weeping Willow installation was complete. It wowed the local community and went viral on social media – we can certainly see why!

Well done to the Poppy Posse on their inspirational Remembrance Day community Key Project.

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