Maybe it is just me, but are fewer and fewer people wearing a poppy this year?
I hope I’m wrong. I hope that everyone puts their hands in their pockets and fills the poppy cash boxes to capacity. Take as many poppies as you need and wear one proudly everywhere you go from now to Remembrance Day.
The idea for the Remembrance Day Poppy was imagined by Madame Anna Guerin, of France. She was inspired by John McCrae’s poem “In Flanders Field.” Anna had originally founded a charity to help build regions of France after the First World War and created poppies made of fabric to raise funds.
Anna presented her concept to France’s allies, including the precursor to the Royal Canadian Legion, The Great War Veterans Association. The idea was considered at a meeting in Port Arthur, Ontario (now Thunder Bay) and was adopted on July 6, 1921.
Since then, the Poppy has stood as a National symbol of Remembrance. The Poppy is also the recognized symbol for the Legion’s Poppy Campaign, which raises funds to support veterans and their dependents, through the trademark, the Legion ensures that the Remembrance Poppy is not used to commercialize, politicize, or dishonour those who served or to misrepresent the Poppy campaign and the donations it raises.
Poppy boxes can be found throughout Kneehill County. Make a donation, pick a poppy, and wear it with pride.
The poppy should be worn, with respect, on the left side, over the heart.
It has become a tradition, in Three Hills, that following the Remembrance Day Service everyone able, makes their way to the Cenotaph, at Memorial Park, where poppies are removed and placed on the Cenotaph. See elsewhere in this issue for times and places of remembrance Day Services.
That’s Life.
