After midnight on Thursday, boxes carrying an estimated 177,000 Remembrance Day poppies will leave the Royal Canadian Legion in Kelowna to be distributed to businesses throughout the Central Okanagan.
It’s been 100 years this week since the bright red bloom has been affixed to lapels as a call to remember men and women who served Canada in times of war, making this year’s campaign particularly important.
“To me, it means remembrance of our fallen comrades who gave up their lives, and a lot of them are still buried overseas,” John Cashin, president of the Royal Canadian Legion branch 26 and Poppy campaign chairman, said.
Kelowna mayor Colin Basran was the first to be pinned with a poppy on Thursday, and he expressed his gratitude to all those who served, allowing him to live freely in Kelowna and Canada.
Cashin, though, like many Canadians, had family members who served in both the Second World War and the Korean War, so the poppy is something that carries more weight than meets the eye.
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It’s a time to think of those he loved and also a lifeline to programs that support both veterans and those who are looking at serving in the future.
“The poppy campaign is very important to us,” Cashin said. “It supports our veterans, to the tune of about I think $40,000 last year.”
It also locally supports three cadet corps, where $50,000 in bursaries was given out, and they have different care homes they support.
When the campaign was stymied last year by a variety of COVID-19-related restrictions, there was concern that the vital stream of income would dry up, but Cashin said it was far from the case.
“It blew me away,” he said.
In the end, around $162,000 was raised, which was roughly $40,000 less than the previous couple of years — remarkable considering nobody was able to walk around with the trays, and actively remind people to put their poppy on.
“People in Kelowna are so generous … and the businesses, also,” he said.
This year he’s expecting around $200,000 from the campaign.
While the poppy sales are back to normal, not everything is. Cashin said Kelowna’s Remembrance Day Ceremony won’t be going on. Between limiting numbers and checking passports the logistics were too difficult to navigate.
West Kelowna, however, will still hold its ceremony, as will Lake Country.
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