Lisa’s 600 poppy stones
SIX hundred painted poppies will adorn the steps of Hinckley’s War Memorial thanks to a community mission titled #missionpoppystone.
The idea came from Lisa Crankshaw who earlier in the year decided she would paint a stone in memory of her grandmother’s cousin who died during WW2, to then place it on the memorial for Remembrance Day.
While painting stones for the local Isla Stones campaign, Lisa created her stone of Remembrance and posted it on social media to share with others.
She was then bombarded with messages asking if she could paint stones for friends relatives who had also been killed in conflict.
“It was around mid-September when I decided that maybe we should paint stones for each name on the memorial,” says Lisa.
“Then I realized that there were about 600 names, so thought I should ask for some help!”
“After posting it on social media the reaction just snowballed, some people helped to add one or two stones and others did 50.
“One lady from the community came to me with a bag of stones, she said she couldn’t paint, but wanted to donate stones to the cause.
“It was a big community effort and I am so excited to see them all together now.”
With a large backing from members of the community, Lisa created a Facebook group where she could share her progress, allowing other Hinckley locals to back and join in the campaign.
Now titled #missionpoppystone, the group has over 200 followers and in just under two months the community with has managed to paint 600 stones in time for the Remembrance Day service.
Lisa said: “It’s been really good, I’m just excited to see them all because I think it will look quite magnificent on the memorial.
“Who knows maybe all 600 stones can travel the world and come back before next years Remembrance Service.”
All 600 stones will be placed on the steps leading up to the memorial in time for the Remembrance Day Service on Sunday November 11.
Similarly to the concept of the #IslaStones campaign, Lisa is encouraging family members of a loved one - whose name appears on the memorial - to take their stone and keep it or plant it elsewhere.
Lisa is also advising that those who do wish to take a stone of their loved one to make a donation to either the Isla campaign or to the local poppy appeal.
Almost all of the painted stones will have a red poppy on the front with the name of the serviceman and the #islastones campaign on the back, a select few will have purple poppies to represent the animals we lost during the war, while 14 will have white poppies remembering the civilians on the memorial.
“Each stone is different, no two will be the same, they are all unique and each different shape represents the difference in the people who fought for us from the area,” Lisa added.