Poppies honor living veterans and war dead
Friday and Saturday, May 17 and 18, is American Legion Auxiliary Poppy days in Warren County. All will be asked to wear a poppy.
Days are set aside each year in observance of Poppy Day. This is a voluntary tribute to our dead and disabled servicemen. By accepting one of these poppies from a member of the American Legion Auxiliary or other volunteer, we aid the living victims of past wars.
The poppy grew in the battlefields of France and Belgium where American servicemen had fallen during two World Wars.
In the years following the first World War, the poppy came to be recognized as nature’s tribute to the war dead and it was soon adopted as the American Legion and Auxiliary’s official memorial flower.
The poppy you will wear on Poppy Day has an even greater significance than the flowers which bloomed on the battlefields in Europe. These memorial poppies you will be offered have been made in VA hospitals by those veterans who are still suffering.
The disabled veterans who make these flowers are able to gain a dual benefit from their work. The poppy program gives many veterans their only opportunity to support themselves and their families and it offers them a productive pastime to help combat the long hours in the hospital ward.
Volunteers who offer these poppies receive nothing for their work. Their only gain is from their satisfaction of helping the living veterans as well as honoring the war dead.
Pauline Webster
Unit 173 Poppy Chairman
American Legion Auxiliary