With the annual poppy campaign nearing the end, the President of the Kamloops Legion is hoping it was another good year at the donation boxes.

Daniel Martin tells NL News it will be great to see more than the $85,000 that was raised during the poppy campaign last year.

“So those funds obviously throughout the year are basically all given away because it is a trust account so they have to be donated back to veterans in bursaries and stuff like that,” he said. “That is what we re expecting this year.”

Speaking on the NL Morning News, he says it is still not too late if people still want to donate.

“You will see a poppy table with a cloth that says ‘Legion’ on it. Most of the times, you will see two people standing at the table,” Martin added.

“Also, something new that we had this year is those brand new electronic boxes that will accept credit cards and debit cards, so you can make a donation that way also. we really hope those new electronic poppy boxes will help that too.”

This year also marks the 100th anniversary of the poppy having been adopted as a symbol of remembrance.

“Madame Anna Guerin, a citizen of France presented this idea to the Legion’s precursor organization, the Great War Veteran’s Association in 1921 and it was adopted. While running a charity to rebuild after the first world war, Anna was inspired by John McCrae’s poem, In Flanders Fields,” Royal Canadian Legion grand president Larry Murray said.

Last year, most of the funds raised by the poppy campaign across Canada came from online donations. This year, the Legion says most of the money they’ve raised is from people stopping and picking up a poppy in-person.

In Kamloops, and across Canada, the 2021 poppy campaign got underway on Oct. 29.

“We just have to remember that the money raised for the poppy campaign goes into a trust and all those funds are only used for helping veterans that are in need,”
Martin added. “So either lodging or food or anything that they need.”

As for the Remembrance Day, the Legion will be hosting an invite-only ceremony at the Battle Street Cenotaph on Thursday because of ongoing COVID-19 restrictions. It will be livestreamed on the Legion’s facebook page.

– With files from The Canadian Press

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— Stuntman Stu (@StuntmanStu) November 7, 2021