Students at Galt Collegiate Institute plant poppies to remember those who died in the Second World War

CAMBRIDGE — Bright red metal poppies line the garden outside Galt Collegiate Institute, each representing a former student who served and died in the Second World War.

“It gives you something to give back to all the people that lost their lives” said 17-year-old Pierson Graham who planted one of poppies on Tuesday.

On an unusually warm November day, Pierson was joined by fellow students who planted a total of 75 poppies while a bagpiper played to mark the occasion.

The poppies were made by Grade 11 and 12 manufacturing students using sheet metal and red and black paint.

“Everyone (poppy) is a little different because every student — or every artisan as I like to say — has created it the way they like,” said Frank Huarte, a manufacturing teacher at the school.

The 75 poppies not only represent former Galt Collegiate Institute students who died in the Second World War, but they also mark the number of years that have passed since the conclusion of the war.

“As World War Two becomes further and further in the past … it becomes more significant that we remember the sacrifice and the effort that they put in and what it stands for and what it means for us,” said Huarte.

The manufacturing students have been making the poppies since September, while a history class at the school has been doing research in the archives.

Attached to each poppy is a laminated card that includes a name and photograph of a young man that went to Galt Collegiate Institute and lost his life in the Second World War.

“My students were able to research the different veterans using newspaper articles from the Kitchener Public Library,” said Kristen Watson, who heads the school’s history department.

“So as they were planting their poppies, they would know a little bit about the story behind the person that they were remembering.”

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