This year marks the 100th anniversary of the Remembrance Day poppy in Canada. In honour of the occasion there is a special pin, based on the original 1921 poppy, available from the Drayton Valley Legion for $10.
Meanwhile the regular poppy campaign is set to get underway on Friday. The first of this year’s poppies were presented to Mayor Nancy Dodds and Reeve Bart Guyon on Wednesday morning. Legion president Bill Cavanagh says once the campaign is up and running there will be volunteers offering poppies to the public at various spots around town including grocery stores and other areas with high pedestrian traffic. New this year is the ability for people to donate to the poppy fund by scanning a QR code on the collection box with their phone.
“You don’t have to have any cash, you can just scan it and go,” says Cavanagh. “You can still give cash if you want though. That’s not an issue.”
The local poppy campaign raises around $25,000 annually. That money is used to support area veterans in need of assistance and to help fund projects such as the CT scanner at the Drayton Valley hospital, which are of use to both veterans and the public at large.
Another new feature of this year’s campaign are lawn signs which are available through the Drayton Valley branch for $20. Cavanagh says they can either be taken home or placed in front of the cenotaph as a show of support and remembrance.
“It would be nice to cover that whole area,” he says.
There will be no indoor service on Remembrance Day this year but Cavanagh says the outdoor ceremony will proceed as usual on November 11, regardless of the weather. For those unable to attend in person the event will be streamed on Facebook as it was last year.
Also on Remembrance Day, the names of nine local veterans will be added to the Wall of Honour next to the cenotaph. Those are;
Private P. Jenkins
L. Cpl A. Armstrong
Lt. W G R Johanneson
L. Cpl R E Coutu
Steward J P Millar
Sgt. A W Lee
Private I Haight
Flt. Lt A Bouschard
Sig. D F Gerow
This is the first time is several years that new names have been added to the wall.
“We’ll continue to do it every Remembrance Day,” says Cavanagh.
