The Royal Canadian Legion's annual Poppy campaign is underway, with poppies on sale locally at Walmart, Canadian Tire and Co-op locations.--PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BRENDAN MILLER
bmiller@medicinehatnews.com
This year’s annual Poppy Campaign that supports veterans and their families is underway, and volunteers are out manning several booths at local retailers up until Remembrance Day.
Each year poppies are sold from the last Friday in October up to Nov. 11. The red flower serves as a reminder for those who made the ultimate sacrifice for the freedoms we enjoy today.
Sheila Donner, president of Robertson Memorial Branch No. 17 in Medicine Hat, emphasized the importance of wearing a poppy leading up to Remembrance Day.
“It’s an opportunity for Canadians to stop and reflect on how we are so lucky to live in a country where our veterans, from time to time, have gone to war, signed up in the past, so that we could be free and live in a democratic country,” Donner said.
The poppy was adopted by the Royal Canadian Legion in 1921 as a sacred symbol to commemorate the service and sacrifices of fallen veterans. Its inspiration comes from Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae’s well-known poem ‘In Flanders Fields.”
“So we have a duty, I think, as Canadians to say thank you, and we do that on Nov. 11,” said Donner. “And the poppy, I’ve always thought it unites us. The poppy is the symbol that we are saying ‘Thank you’ for the fact that we have our freedom.
“The world is very precarious right now, things are happening as we speak and we are very lucky to live here in Canada.”
This year more than 70 volunteers from the Legion, Army Cadets, Kiwanis members and RE/MAX agents are involved in selling poppies at five retail locations around the city, including WalMart, Canadian Tire, two Co-op locations including the Northlands and 13th Avenue locations as well as the Medicine Hat Mall daily between 10:30 a.m. and 5 p.m.
Poppiess can also be found via donation at several other retailers around the city.
“We have a lot of people who have stepped up, they are pretty amazing volunteers,” says Donner.
This year the Legion has partnered with Amazon Canada to purchase a lapel poppy for donations of increments of $2, $5, $10 and $20 with 100 per cent of the funding going directly to the Legion’s Poppy Trust Fund.
Until Remembrance Day the legion is sharing inspirational stories that expand on Canada’s military history and includes family stories, pre-war careers and how soldiers grew up. These stories can be found online at poppystories.ca.
