Sheilah Lee Restall is nominated for creating Manitoba’s first “Poppy Blanket.”
Inspired by a Reddit post, beginning in December 2018, she scheduled monthly public events for volunteers to gather and create handmade knitted and crocheted poppies. She arranged local drop-off locations and set up a post office box that allowed individuals from all over Canada to contribute. She also worked out the logistics and hosted weekly public events for individuals to help attach poppies to the blanket structure.
The events garnered significant media attention and she spread the message that the blanket was intended to convey thanks to all of Canada’s fallen soldiers and Veterans as well as to raise awareness of the sacrifices of our Canadian Armed Forces.
Her work with hundreds of volunteers culminated in the unveiling of the Poppy Blanket at Winnipeg City Hall. The blanket consists of over 8,000 handmade poppies, is over 26 metres in length, and has over 2,000 dedicated ribbons. It was featured at the beginning of a Winnipeg Jets game, at the joint Veterans Affairs Canada Remembrance Day ceremony at the Winnipeg Convention Centre and was displayed for a week at Manitoba’s legislative building.