Annual Poppy campaign underway

It’s an annual tradition for the mayor to receive the first poppy of the year, but this year their were a lot of firsts involved, with Penticton Legion President Murray Grandy and Mayor Dan Ashton both participating in the annual ceremony for the first time. The official presentation of the first poppy marks the start of the Legion’s poppy drive. Each November, Legion members appear around town with their trays of poppies, raising money to aid the Legion’s efforts in supporting veterans.

But perhaps more importantly, the poppies that appear on lapels of people across Canada serve as an important reminder to never forget all those Canadians who have fallen in war and other military operations.

The association of the poppy with war traces back to the Napoleonic wars, but for Canadians the connection goes back to In Flander’s Fields, a poem by Lt.-Col. John McCrae, a Canadian medical officer during the First World War, who described the blood-red flowers growing on the graves of the fallen.