The last Friday in October means the official launch of the Royal Canadian Legion’s annual Poppy Campaign and like everything else in 2020, it will look different because of COVID-19.
The money raised from the campaign goes to helping veterans in a number of ways.
Federal Minister of Veterans Affairs, Lawrence MacAulay, was asked on the NL Morning News if the pandemic would make it harder to get the Poppy Program off the ground that it is in a normal year.
“I thank you so much for saying that and it’s so important. I say please to the general public to support the poppy program. Also the Legions have masks for sale,” he said.
He’s hoping people can dig down a little deeper to help Canada’s Veterans.
“It’s important to realize that these groups, these organizations are having difficulty, like a lot of other organizations, and they do not have the funds to do what they normally to improve the lives of the people who provided our democracy and freedom in the world,” he added.
MacAulay knows a lot of people can’t donate this year but he has a message for the folks who can. “I just urge people to please, just go a little heavier, think more about the donation and how much it helps and how much you’re helping society in general when you do that.”
When asked about protocols from Ottawa for Remembrance Day ceremonies go this year, MacAulay says “Watch them from home, I’m afraid.”
While our country has been handling the pandemic well, MacAulay say it still isn’t safe to go ahead as if it was a normal year. “The pandemic is, as you know, killing people and it’s under pretty good control in this country to say the least. We’re very fortunate but crowds gathering is a dangerous thing of course and the people that we’re honouring certainly wouldn’t want us to hurt ourselves in order to pay respect to them.”
“This year, celebrations will be small indeed and a lot of them virtual but we still want to make sure we honour and respect them but we do not want crowds to gather it is not good, very dangerous in fact and wear the masks, it’s so important.”
