Despite Reaching 100 Poppy's Importance Is Just As Relevant Today

The Poppy as an emblem of remembrance and a means to help veterans turns 100 this year but the message and hope it contains is just as relevant today as it was at its inception.

That is the message which was conveyed today at the 2021 Veterans Luncheon held at the Moose Jaw Legion and put on by the local Poppy Fund. The annual luncheon is put on to recognize those who have served Canada in the military as well as the RCMP.

Sue Knox, secretary-treasurer of the local Poppy Fund, said the Poppy’s first and foremost role is one of remembrance but it also entails a means of assisting those veterans who face disability, hardship and need help after returning from military service to Canada.

“All of the Poppy money goes to serve veterans in need,” Knox said in an interview with MJ Independent.

“The money people and businesses donate helps veterans in many ways. It helps veterans who are homeless to find a place to live, food and other things. It helps families of veterans in need of desperate help to get by,” she said. “The Poppy has since its inception been used for this.”

Don MacDonald gave a history of the Poppy as a symbol of remembrance and how although a Canadian wrote it initially it was an American symbol of Remembrance and grew from there - MJ Independent photo

In his speech to those in attendance Don MacDonald gave a detailed history of the Poppy. From its roots in the icon poem of surgeon Lieutenant Colonel John McCrea the Poppy grew first as an American symbol and then in France and followed by England and the rest of the Allied countries including Canada.

McCrea’s poem was written in a break of his work as a surgeon treating the wounded in the Second Battle of Ypres in 1915. “In Flanders’ Fields” was in memory of his good friend, Lieutenant Alex Helmer who had died earlier that day.

The poem would go on to become well known during World War I and after the war grow into a symbol of remembrance of the sacrifices of veterans with it used to raise funds throughout Allied countries to assist veterans and their families who needed the help, MacDonald said.

Knox said despite it being 100 years, since the Canadian Legion got on board with the Poppy as a symbol, that the need for it as a symbol of Remembrance is just as relevant today.

Programs such as Leave The Streets Behind is funded by the Poppy campaign and is used to get homeless vets off of the streets.

There are scholarships provided to each of the four high schools through the Poppy fund.

“We also help families of veterans in desperate need of help,” she said.

Table For The Fallen Soldier - MJ Independent photo

The program of Legion members going out to visit veterans in nursing homes and in hospitals, which has been in existence for decades in Moose Jaw, continues after being disrupted by COVID - 19 pandemic restrictions at health care facilities. The program takes small items such as chocolate bars, magazines and gum to veterans whose health is failing in these institutions and includes talk and a visit to let them know they are not forgotten, Knox said.

“Once a week we go out and provide little comforts (the funds come from the Poppy Fund).”

The number of military veterans might be decreasing but the need of veterans from more recent conflicts Canada has been involved in is still there with the problems more complex than in earlier conflicts like WW II and Korea.

“There are many experiencing mental health issues…we support them by providing funds.”

“There are less veterans now but there are more younger veterans with more problems. There are many in distress,” Knox said.

“They come right to us and they have service.”

The Poppy Funds from today also go to groups such as The Wounded Warriors group who hold a biannual retreat from those experiencing mental health problems something in the past referred to as “shell shock.”

Some of those in attendance for the luncheon - MJ Independent photo

Another major service the Poppy Fund provides locally is helping sick veterans get to medical appointments with specialists in Regina.

“That is used quite heavily with appointments for care and cancer specialists,” Knox said.

The past year, due to the pandemic, it was a bit difficult to find volunteers to help with the Poppy drive but the people and businesses who did step up helped the local Poppy Fund raise the $50,000 the fund brings in on an annual basis.

“We haven’t run out of money yet, we have some money in reserves…money to help cover a major emergency.”

The luncheon also featured a ceremony of a Table Set For One to remember those who had fallen and could not be in attendance.

“Let us remember and never forget their sacrifice. May they and their families be ever remembered,” was stated in the ceremony.