Embedded Files
Wearing a poppy means
to honor the dead and to help the living.
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Since 1920,
the American Legion Auxiliary
has sponsored a Poppy Day in May
to remind America,
that millions
have sacrificed their lives
and health
to keep our nation strong and free.
(Memorial Day
is held the last Monday in May.)
The Memorial Poppy
contributions
are devoted entirely
to rehabilitation and assistance
for veterans and their families.
For years
the Legion Auxiliary Poppy flowers
were made by veterans,
disabled/rehabilitating service members
to raise funds to help other veterans.
Recently that task
has been fulfilled by
auxiliary members
to help the veterans.
The Poppy, a flower of remembrance,
a memorial for American soldiers
who have paid the supreme sacrifice
in order that America could remain free.
Since the tradition began,
the Poppy program has enabled us
to offer direct assistance
to our veterans and their families.
With the help of
our dedicated Auxiliary members
and Your Generous Contributions
we will be able to continue our efforts.
Poppy Donations Are Accepted Year Round.
We only set up Poppy Donation Booths across Braxton Co. WV in May.
Photos from a Poppy Booth at Flatwoods Outlet Mall in Braxton Co.WV
over the years since 2006 - Unit 33 member June Knight pictured in most.
If you would like to make a donation
to our Poppy Fund...
American Legion Auxiliary Unit #33 Braxton Co. WV
OR
Mail Donation To:
Make check payable to: ALAUX33WV
Please Note For POPPY on your check.
ALAUX33WV
c/o M. McMillion Tres.
1237 Gauley Turnpike
Flatwoods, WV 26621-8089
For Correspondence Mail To:
ALAux33WV
c/o Sheila Mitchell
PO Box 292
Gassaway WV 26624
E-mail Address:
alaux33wv@gmail.com
Contact Phone number:
Sergeant At Arms -
Jane Murphy 304-765-2517
Fax number: Not Available.
Thanks to all that help make our fundraisers a success.
Auxiliary's Poppy Program History
American veterans brought home that image and planted it with the Auxiliary
where it has bloomed every year for the benefit of those who served America.
The homecoming of the 32nd Division in Milwaukee
in June 1919, marked the beginning of the Auxiliary's Poppy Program.
A coffee and doughnut booth decorated with paper poppies
was stripped of its floral ornaments twice
and those who took the poppies left contributions on the counter.
Several hundred dollars were contributed
for the benefit of disabled veterans.
One of the women in the booth, Mrs. Mary Hanecy,
proposed that distributing poppies
on the streets at the time of Memorial Day
would be an excellent way
for American Legion Posts to raise money
needed for rehabilitation work.
She presented her idea to Post Number 1 in Milwaukee
and as a result, this group conducted a poppy distribution
on the Saturday before Memorial Day 1920.
The Georgia Department of The American Legion
adopted the poppy as a memorial flower
at its Convention in 1920.
Then the Georgia delegation took the idea to
The American Legion National Convention
at Cleveland in September 1920
and the poppy was adopted
as the national memorial flower of the organization.
At the first National Convention of the American Legion Auxiliary
in Kansas City, Missouri in October 1921,
one of its first actions was the adoption of the poppy
as the Auxiliary's memorial flower.
During the same period, the poppy also became the memorial flower of the British Legion.
Other American veterans' organizations also followed The American Legion and Auxiliary
in adopting it as their official flower of remembrance.
Shortly afterward, millions of the memorial flowers
were worn each year throughout the English speaking world
to honor the war dead and aid the living but disabled veterans.
By 1924, it was realized the Poppy Program
would be best handled by women and
The American Legion gave the Auxiliary
complete charge of the national program.
The Auxiliary has lived up to the great responsibilities this carried.
At present, approximately 25 million Americans
wear Legion Auxiliary poppies
in tribute to the war dead,
contributing nearly two million dollars
for the rehabilitation and well being of disabled veterans.
(Papaver rhoeas) Long known as the corn poppy.
The poppy which grew wild on the battle fields of Flanders became,
in the minds of the doughboys of World War I,
a symbol of the sacrifice which they had endured.
It had flourished among the shelled buildings and bomb-scarred landscape.
Its brilliant red bloom, so much like the blood which had been shed there,
became a sign of hope and renewal for those who lived and walked away.
For those who would never leave, those who had sacrificed their lives,
it was a perpetual memorial to their bravery.
History Of The Memorial Poppy
The Poppy as the Memorial Flower for American War Dead
is a tradition which began in the years following the first world war.
Veterans returning to their homes in this country
remembered the wild poppies
which lined the devastated battlefields of France and Flanders,
and the soldiers of all nations came to look upon this flower
as a living symbol of their dead comrades' sacrifice.
A Canadian officer, Colonel John McCrae,
immortalized the flower in his famous poem,
"In Flanders' Fields".
(poem below)
Returning servicemen brought with them
memories of the battlefield poppies,
and the flower soon took on a sacred significance.
The poppy soon became a symbol
of honoring the dead and assisting the living victims of war.
Soon after the armistice, patriotic organizations
in different countries began conducting poppy days.
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In Flanders' Fields
The red poppy was first described as a flower of remembrance by Colonel John McCrae,
who was Professor of Medicine at McGill University of Canada before World War One.
Colonel McCrae had served as a gunner in the Boer War,
but went to France in World War One as a medical Officer with the first Canadian Contingent.
At the second battle of Ypres in 1915, when in charge of a small first-aid post,
he wrote in pencil on a page torn from his dispatch book:
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row
That mark our place . . . and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below
We are the Dead.
Short days ago We lived,
felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved,
and now we lie In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep,
though poppies grow In Flanders fields.
Col. John McCrae
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The verses were apparently sent anonymously to the English magazine, Punch,
which published them under the title, In Flanders’ Fields.
Colonel McCrae died while on active duty in May 1918.
On the eve of his death - he allegedly said to his doctor, “Tell them this.
If ye break the faith with us who die, we shall not sleep”.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
His volume of poetry, In Flanders’ Fields
and Other Poems, was published in 1919.
In 1915, inspired by the poem "In Flanders Fields,"
Moina Michael replied with her own poem:
We cherish too, the Poppy red
That grows on fields where valor led,
It seems to signal to the skies
That blood of heroes never dies.
On behalf of America's Veterans,
Thank You for Caring.
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