Events & Entertainment, Health & Lifestyle | Posted on May 19th, 2025 | return to news
Wimborne museum supports Dementia Action Week
More than 9,000 knitted and crocheted forget-me-not flowers can be found throughout the Museum of East Dorset this week.
Handcrafted forget-me-not flowers are adorning the Museum of East Dorset in Wimborne in support of Dementia Action Week.
Over 9,100 knitted and crocheted blooms can be found in the historic townhouse building, tearoom, and exhibition spaces.
The initiative, launched in February, called on knitters nationwide to create woollen forget-me-not flowers. The response was overwhelming, with contributions arriving from Scotland, Lancashire, and across Dorset, many accompanied by heartfelt notes remembering loved ones affected by dementia.
The 9,100 separate flowers have been carefully stitched and glued together by an army of volunteers to create this visual spectacle.
These flowers are the symbol of the annual campaign run by the Alzheimer’s Society and designed to create a special moment each year, when everyone comes together to honour and remember people affected by dementia.
The museum provided free patterns and wool, encouraging community participation.
Museum volunteer Sally Palmer played a key role in recruiting knitters. Sally, who has been a volunteer at the Museum of East Dorset for 13 years, said: “I just kept asking people who came into the tearoom if they knitted. If they said yes, I gave them a leaflet and asked them to get involved. I also rallied my friends who contributed about 500 flowers.”
Museum director Francesca Hollow, who first envisioned the giant knitted flower project, said: “We are overwhelmed by the support of this campaign and would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who got involved. When we launched it, we hoped for a few hundred and our post bag just kept getting bigger. Whether you knitted a handful or hundreds, our display shows that every flower is equally important.”
Beyond the floral display, Sally has also created dementia teddies as part of the campaign. Freddy the Dementia Teddy is available for purchase in the museum’s gift shop, alongside knitted forget-me-not pins, Sales will help raise funds for the museum’s range of dementia-friendly initiatives.
To learn more about the Museum of East Dorset’s dementia-friendly activities, visit www.museumofeastdorset.co.uk.
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