More than 1,200 individually-made paper poppies added color and meaning to the Memorial Day mood at Veterans Memorial Park on Monday.
The heart-shaped array on the grass was the work of the Never Fading Poppy Project, a recently established student club at Bedford High School.
Sayontika Bhattacharya and fellow sophomore Anjie Chen brought the project to BHS, learning about it from friends at Lexington High School where it began in 2020. There are now branches at high schools in six states.
“We thought it was such a cool idea to connect the generations through art,” said Bhattacharya.
She added that the club also sends handmade Memorial Day cards to residents of the Veterans Administration Hospital.
The red poppy has been a symbol of remembrance for those who died in war for more than a century.
Standing alongside the display as onlookers admired the paper poppies on Monday, Bhattacharya said she and Chen fabricated about 800 of the flowers, which she said “took kind of a while.”
The remainder, more than 400, were the work of volunteer students from the Air Force Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps during the past week.
She noted that the club’s faculty advisors are a collaboration: Lt. Col. Ken Mierz, who heads the Junior ROTC, and Sean Hagan, program director for art.
Bhattacharya said she hopes the display will continue through the week, although she is concerned about rain.
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