Member Article

Portsmouth’s Salvation Army knits 75 poppies for Barratt Homes Remembrance campaign

An army of volunteer knitters from Portsmouth have crafted and crocheted 75 poppies to make into wreaths for various Barratt Homes remembrance events across the region.

A group of ladies from The Salvation Army’s Craft and Friendship Group, which meets at The Salvation Army Haven Community Centre in Portsmouth once a week, answered Barratt’s call for help in crafting some poppies to mark Remembrance Day.

Leading national housebuilder Barratt Homes’ Southampton division, which is building new homes across Hampshire, will be marking Remembrance Day this year with visits to memorial hotspots to lay wreaths in memory of those who have served and to pay their respects.

The Craft and Friendship Group made a total of 75 poppies using various knitting techniques, and as a ‘thank you’ Barratt donated £1, 000 to The Salvation Army’s Christmas Toy and Food Appeal, which provides toys and food hampers to families in Portsmouth who would otherwise go without.

Salvation Army Community Manager, Rob Warburton, said they were only too pleased to help. “It’s a great idea and it’s exactly the sort of thing the ladies in this group love to do,” he said. “As a Church and Community Centre, we run lots of different activities, providing opportunity for people to get together and to meet new people and make friends. The group loves to do things that will make a difference, so when we heard Barratt were looking for people to knit some poppies, we saw it as our contribution towards a fitting mark of respect for Remembrance Day.”

Barratt supports several initiatives associated with the Armed Forces, including the sponsorship of the Royal British Legion for two years and recruits former services personnel through its Armed Forces Transition Programme.

Marketing Manager at Barratt Homes’ Southampton division, Megan Hamlyn, said: “We wanted to support a local worthy cause as part of our Remembrance Day campaign and reached out to The Salvation Army to see if they would be willing to help us knit our poppies for us. Our former services personnel attend various Remembrance Day events around the region and lay poppy wreaths as a mark of respect. We would like to thank the skilled volunteers from The Salvation Army who produced these beautiful poppies for us. We are extremely grateful.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Barratt Homes .