Jimmy’s bowl heads to France

Jono Pope, of Pope Packaging, pictured taking the poppy bowl from Jo Davies-Colley.

After Hokitika resident Jimmy Gordon made hundreds of handmade poppy bowls out of recycled matai and pounamu during the covid pandemic he gave two to the Cambridge RSA.

Now one of them is heading to France.

The RSA presented one of the bowls to Cambridge Community Board for the people of Le Quesnoy and kept the other to use in Anzac and Armistice Day services to hold poppies.

In May Cambridge Community Board chair Jo Davies-Colley started the process of sending the bowl to France, where she and Waipā mayor Susan O’Regan and deputy Liz Stolwyk will soon attend the opening of the New Zealand Liberation Museum Te Arawhata “and thank goodness I did”.

“I needed special Ministry of Culture and Heritage documents to ship the item due to its precious pounamu and matai, Customs clearance and multiple shipping forms from both myself and the council in Le Quesnoy to get the item there,” Davies-Colley said.

“I had to get a French speaking Cambridge local, Sandrine Pryor, to help me make late night calls to the Le Quesnoy council to sort out the paperwork.”

The bowl should arrive this week and Davies-Colley and O’Regan will present it to the mayor of Le Quesnoy, Marie-Sophie Lesne.

“It will be for the people of Le Quesnoy, and the mayor will find an appropriate place for it to be displayed. They are very excited for it to arrive,” Davies-Colley said.

Companies Pope Packaging and Mondiale Freight Services were inspired by the story of the relationship between Cambridge and Le Quesnoy and provided their services free to ensure the bowl reached its destination.

See: RSA stages treble ceremony.