Bus poppy design to mark Armistice Day

Tuesday 22 October 2019

13-year-old Emily Man will help CT Plus commemorate Armistice Day this year with her winning poppy design, which will be displayed on the back of the 'poppy bus'.

The company invited children across the island to come up with a remembrance design to add to the bus, which first appeared last year to mark 100 years since the end of World War I.

With more than 20 entries, a judging panel was called in to pick the winning poppy.

"I used stuff that represents Guernsey to make the design," explained Miss Man, who was encouraged to take part in the competition by her school. "I thought of it suddenly as I was drawing it.

"The tank represents Guernsey in the World Wars, the donkey and the cow represent Guernsey and the castle represents Castle Cornet."

Pictured: All the entries will be displayed on the bus.

Although Miss Man's design will have pride of place on the outside of the bus, all of the entries will be displayed.

"The idea of the children's imagination and creativity putting extra poppies on the bus as the years progress was something that we always wanted to do," said Marketing & PR Officer for CT Plus, Jon Ozanne.

"Key for us was we wanted to celebrate all the work from the children and we've done that before where every single entry is to be celebrated for what they've done. Clearly there's a winner and clearly that goes on the back of the bus but Emily's just seemed to capture everything together. It has a strong message.

Pictured: Jon Ozanne.

"We said to ourselves, 'we're not going to be influenced by whether it's red or not red, it's just what the children come up with'."

CT Plus is planning to keep the 'poppy bus' in service for the next few years, with the possibility of running similar competitions in the future.

Pictured top: Competition winner Emily Man.