STUDENTS and volunteers joined forces at a workshop on Friday to create a fitting memorial to lost loved ones in the form of a poppy-adorned WW2 Spitfire. 
Volunteers from the Let’s Make It creative community group and 20 students from Budmouth College used 9,500 poppies to cover the fighter plane and dedicated them in the memory of loved ones.
The workshop, which took place at the Council Offices in Commercial Road, was also attended by Weymouth and Portland Mayor Cllr Kevin Brooks who helped attach the poppies to the plane and spoke with students.
“We wanted to give them an idea to why we use the poppy as a symbol of remembrance,” he said. 
Mr Brooks said the students were told how the flowers were adopted from 1915 poem Flanders Fields by Canadian doctor John McCrae about the poppies blowing in the wind during the First World War.
A staff sergeant from Blandford Army Camp gave a presentation outlining the importance of continuing the poppy remembrance and showed clips from the repatriation of British soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan.
Mr Brooks added that although there were light hearted moments when making the poppies there was a mix of emotions throughout the workshop.
“It all went very quiet when watching services of soldiers. Once you start bringing it up to date it has real significance,” he said. 
One student read out “a letter home”, a letter written by serving personnel in case they died during service. 
 The Spitfire will now become part of a larger display inspired by the ceramic poppy display at the Tower of London in 2014 which has already attracted global interest. 
The group of 300 community volunteers have now made more than 70,000 poppies to create the design by local artist Lesley Pitney. 
The artwork will be completed at further workshops through September and October and will be displayed in Weymouth Library for five weeks at the end of October until the first week in December. 
Let’s Make It is supported by Weymouth & Portland Borough Council and support creative community projects in the area.