BY KIDS POPPIES S AY THANKS

On the morning of November 11, 1918, on the eleventh hour, the guns that had been shooting for four long years during the First Word War from 1914 to 1918 fell silent.

Here at St Margaret Mary’s College we have committed to making 3000 poppies from pieces of card that come with instructions on how to make each poppy.

The poppies will contribute to the 57,705 poppies that form part of an art installation to reflect the number of Queensland soldiers who enlisted in the First World War.

The handmade poppies will be collected and placed inside eight acrylic letters which spell “REMEMBER” and which will stand at three metres high and 16 metres in length.

This final art installation is going to travel from Townsville to Brisbane next month.

It has been 100 years since the First World War, when we as a nation lost 60,000 people out of the 416,809 who enlisted.

There were also 156,000 wounded, gassed or taken prisoner.

Many of these men did not return home and were buried on the other side of the world, and their families never got to say a last goodbye.

Many families still mourn the loss of these brave soldiers who fought for our freedom.

This is our small gesture to show our respect for the 416,809 Aussies and their families who contributed so much to this effort.

In the coming weeks, you will see more about these soldiers who put their lives on the front line for you and your family when they took their first steps on to one of the 38 ships to depart for war on November 1, 1914.

So many waved goodbye for the last time to their own lives and to their families to protect ours.

These young, brave Anzacs shall always be remembered: those who returned home and those who took their last breath on the battlefield.

We shall not forget. A GROUP of St Clare’s students were thrilled with their artwork success, taking out a number of awards at the Townsville Show.

St Clare’s Catholic School Outside School Hours Care students have been entering the art competition at the Townsville Show since the school opened in 2011.

Students look forward to this activity each year and work in groups, discuss ideas and learn from each other.

The school has won many awards over the past eight years, including many first, second and third places, the People’s Choice Award and in 2018, the Perpetual Trophy.

Each year there is a different theme, with this year’s mural section theme “Life is a Carnival”.

The Prep and Year 1 children painted a Ferris wheel, Year 2 and Year 3 students took out third place with their circus tent mural and the Year 4, Year 5 and Year 6 team won second place with their mural of masks, called Carnivale.

Two students also won individual awards: Skyla placed second with her painting of the Taj Mahal and Maddison was awarded a third- place prize for her piece, Monkey Business.