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chemgear · 11-11-2014, 12:41 PM

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/...ticle21521316/

We’ve been issued gloves, a red T-shirt with “Volunteer” on the back, a commemorative button and safety glasses. We’ve just watched a video in which a jolly Beefeater – or Yeoman Warder, as they’re called, all of whom are war veterans with at least 22 years of service – has carefully instructed us on how to assemble a poppy, a matter of pushing rubber washers and a stopper on a metal stick, then placing a ceramic blossom on top and securing it with a small cap. With a small mallet, each of us in the group of approximately 200 volunteers will then hammer another life into the ground, commemorating the nearly 900,000 British and Commonwealth servicemen, who died in the Great War. That number includes the nearly 66,000 Canadians lost in the one of history’s bloodiest conflicts.

“We didn’t think we’d get enough volunteers, either,” adds Kirsty Baxter, the project manager and a retired British army major. By the time the last poppy is planted in the moat Nov. 11, nearly 20,000 volunteers will have participated, installing the flowers at a rate of nearly 70,000 a week.

Due to popular demand – and the intervention of Prime Minister David Cameron, mayor Boris Johnson and many others – a portion of the poppy installation is staying on past its scheduled end on Nov. 12. The poppies will be plucked from the ground to be washed, packaged and sent to those who bought them. What took four months to install will take two weeks to remove. They were here. And then they’ll be gone. Fleeting. Fragile. Like life itself.

And I realize suddenly that the genius of the commemoration is in the human participation, the work of hands and hearts. In the end, that’s all any of us can do.

11-11-2014, 12:41 PM	#18
chemgear Franchise Player Join Date: Feb 2010 Exp:	http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/...ticle21521316/ We’ve been issued gloves, a red T-shirt with “Volunteer” on the back, a commemorative button and safety glasses. We’ve just watched a video in which a jolly Beefeater – or Yeoman Warder, as they’re called, all of whom are war veterans with at least 22 years of service – has carefully instructed us on how to assemble a poppy, a matter of pushing rubber washers and a stopper on a metal stick, then placing a ceramic blossom on top and securing it with a small cap. With a small mallet, each of us in the group of approximately 200 volunteers will then hammer another life into the ground, commemorating the nearly 900,000 British and Commonwealth servicemen, who died in the Great War. That number includes the nearly 66,000 Canadians lost in the one of history’s bloodiest conflicts. “We didn’t think we’d get enough volunteers, either,” adds Kirsty Baxter, the project manager and a retired British army major. By the time the last poppy is planted in the moat Nov. 11, nearly 20,000 volunteers will have participated, installing the flowers at a rate of nearly 70,000 a week. Due to popular demand – and the intervention of Prime Minister David Cameron, mayor Boris Johnson and many others – a portion of the poppy installation is staying on past its scheduled end on Nov. 12. The poppies will be plucked from the ground to be washed, packaged and sent to those who bought them. What took four months to install will take two weeks to remove. They were here. And then they’ll be gone. Fleeting. Fragile. Like life itself. And I realize suddenly that the genius of the commemoration is in the human participation, the work of hands and hearts. In the end, that’s all any of us can do.