Care Home Residents Make Knitted Poppies.

The residents of a Cambridge care home have been making and selling knitted poppies, and have donated some of the poppies for cadets to wear on Remembrance Day. The care home also invited some of our instructors to collect the poppies and money raised on behalf of Cambridgeshire Army Cadet Force and The Poppy Appeal.

A group of ladies at the home have been very much involved in knitting for good causes, including making baby bonnets for the Rosie Hospital and blankets for Cambridgeshire Wildlife Trust. Recently, the ladies were looking for a new challenge and one of them, Peggy, created a knitted poppy. This inspired the plan to make and sell Remembrance poppies. In this, she was joined by fellow residents Liz, Sabrina and Fiona. In total, they knitted more than 60 poppies.

Heathland House care home in Cherry Hinton is part of Care UK, a major care organisation with 200 homes. Heathland House has 60 elderly residents with a wide variety of needs, and they have a varied program of activities and actively encourage their residents to take part in creative activities. The poppies were sold in the care home’s reception, where they proved popular with visitors, family and friends, staff, and ambulance crews.

The home’s Customer Care Manager Jo Molloy-Cruden said; ‘so many people commented and said how wonderful they were. Many people who bought them were stunned by how lovely they are. One woman said she would treasure it and always wear it. The ladies belong to a generation where lots of people served, so it’s important to them. It’s also important to involve the Cadet Forces because it’s an inter-generational thing.’

Sergeant Instructor Douglas Stuart, of Cambridgeshire Army Cadet Force, said: ‘Thanks so much to Heathland House residents and staff for their support for our fundraising and providing us with some of their beautiful poppies. We were delighted to hear that these ladies were making poppies and wanting to support our organisation and veterans. Remembrance continues to be an important event, and its very moving to see old and young people remembering, and these poppies have connected them together.’