Seymour College has been announced as the recipient of the Seymour Agricultural and Pastoral Society’s Community Award for their beautiful horse constructed with purple poppies.
The award was presented at last week’s Seymour Show by Nationals Member for Euroa Annabelle Cleeland who was incredibly proud of the work done by staff and students at the local school.
“This is a wonderful achievement and a testament to the hard work of staff, students, and the wider community,” Ms Cleeland said.
“Seymour is a town with a proud defence history, and it is great to recognise the passing of this knowledge onto the next generation.
“The work that Seymour College does to help integrate these students, and involve the whole community, is excellent and worthy of celebrating.
“Congratulations to everyone involved on receiving this well-deserved award.”
The horse symbolises the animals that dedicated their lives during war and is the second poppy project the school has undertaken in recent years, following on from “The Man” which was made last year using 500 red poppies.
The three-year project is set to continue with more purple poppy animals to be revealed later in the year. Plans for next year’s design are already underway.
Seymour College’s Defence School Mentor Kelly Quigg, along with fellow staff member Isobel Foster, had established the project to help integrate students from defence force families into the wider Seymour community.
The school’s dedicated Defence Transition program has provided support to the many children of defence force families in the region.
“It can be hard to integrate into a new community,” Ms Quigg said.
“After receiving great feedback on the our first design, we wanted to make this year’s project more community based and to get the students more involved.
“We have had help from all kinds of community groups including the Men’s Shed, a women’s craft group, the Lions Club, Vietnam Veterans, and the local RSL.
“In this area, if you’re not in defence yourself, you most likely have had family involved, or you know someone who has.
“We’re really excited about our next project that will be using white poppies and will symbolise peace and the women involved in war.”
