The 2015 Poppy Campaign is now underway across Canada and soon you will see people wearing these blood-red symbols of sacrifice. You will have merchants with poppies for sale along with Cadets selling them.
Will there be as big a demand for poppies as last year?
The nation was saddened by the tragic deaths of Corporal Nathan Cirillo and Warrant Office Patrice Vincent and as Remembrance was not far away, Poppy sales soared. Let’s hope it continues this year.
In a public ceremony at the National War Memorial in Ottawa last week, dignitaries and citizens commemorated the tragic deaths of Corporal Cirillo and Warrant Officer Vincent, killed a year ago last week in separate incidents.
David Johnston, Governor General and Commander-in-Chief of Canada, and Patron of The Royal Canadian Legion, was presented with the symbolic First Poppy of 2015 by Tom Eagles, Dominion President of the Legion.
This set the stage for the Legion’s Poppy Campaign, which is now under way officially.
The Royal Canadian Legion Branch 139 in Williams Lake is ready for the 2015 Poppy campaign and for Nov. 11 ceremonies.
Branch 139 Poppy campaign chair Joe Bazan has volunteers phoning businesses to take wreaths for display and some are also taking boxes of poppies for sale by donation.
The sale of poppies goes to help veterans and their dependents in time of need and help.
Help the legion and the veterans this year, buy a Poppy. Don’t forget to turn out for the Nov. 11 Remembrance Day.
Using poppies to commemorate the war dead began in France, where the red flowers grew on the graves of soldiers.
The famous poem, In Flanders Fields, written by Canadian John McCrae during the first World War, help make the poppy a symbol of remembrance, especially in Canada.
Canadians have worn them since the early 1920s to remind us of the horrors of war and to remember those who gave their lives for us.
The poppy is properly worn on the left side, over the heart.
Ken Wilson is a freelance columnist with the Tribune/Weekend Advisor.