The red glossy pedals of hundreds of ceramic poppies glaze the grounds of the Cannon Falls cemetery, but not just for the sake of adding some color. Each poppy has a painful, yet sweet backstory and had been made with love and care by the Cannon Falls High School staff members. By taking a look into how, by whom, and why the artificial flowers were made, one can truly understand what the poppies really represent.

It took a long four months to finally complete all 403 poppies, and according to Mrs. Nicolette Hernke, the high school art and humanities teacher, it was a tedious process. “First, a design had to be created for the poppies. We then had to figure out how the flower would go together.” Hernke was given some assistance in this process from not only the school workers, but her brother, Matt Meyers. He created a custom cutter for the design of the petals so that it was much easier for everyone to cut a proportional flower. The next steps of the process began with ordering supplies and rolling the slabs to cut the petals from. Each flower was formed, then dried, and then bisque fired. The poppies then had to be glazed and glaze fired, but that’s not all. Hernke states that the ceramic flowers had to be placed onto metal stakes, which were made by Mr. Mark Wolter, the high school construction and shop teacher. Although Mrs. Hernke and Mr. Walter played big roles in getting these poppies ready for presentation, their hands weren’t the only ones on deck during the process.

“It took forever to make them, but it felt good giving back to the community and showing our support for fallen veterans,” said Mr. Jones, the high school physical science teacher. Although making the flowers did require a lot of time and work, many staff members stated that they had a fun time making them and it didn’t feel like work and they had a lot of fun on the job, but the staff didn’t just make the poppies to have a good time. They made the flowers to honor certain members of our community.