Local legion looking to set another poppy campaign record
Ex-service peacekeeper Reg Gervais who was deployed on one of the first peacekeeping missions to the Sinai Desert in Egypt from 1962 until 1963, holds a poppy to remind people to donate.
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Updated: November 03, 2009 3:58 PM
Reg Gervais stands out front of Save-On-Foods at Valley Fair Mall in the sun, wearing a blue beret with the peacekeeping symbol proudly demonstrated. As people mill around him, dropping coins and bills into a tin, he hands them a vibrant red flower and pin, and smiles.
This is the third year Gervais has volunteered for the poppy campaign.
The ex-service peacekeeper is one of 75 members of Branch 88 of the Royal Canadian Legion who will grace the entrance of shopping centres around Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows, offering poppies in exchange for donations.
While some are out and about, delivering and replenishing poppies at local businesses, others will be poppy taggers at shopping centres.
“We are stretched to the limits, but we are doing the best we can,” said Linda Henry, president of the legion, which has 2,500 members.
Although residents can make donations to the legion year-round, most are collected during the poppy campaign – from the last Friday in October until Remembrance Day.
Last year, the legion raised more than $50,000 – a record that Henry is hoping to see broken this year.
“Last year we were totally astounded, that was our most successful campaign,” Henry said.
“We had never achieved that kind of a goal. We’re hoping to see that the people of Pitt Meadows and Maple Ridge dig deep. Every nickel and dime counts.”
Money collected from the poppy campaign is held in trust by the legion, Henry added, and used for charity.
Following this year’s Remembrance Day parade and ceremony in Maple Ridge, donations will be made at the legion to various local charities and groups, including Girl Guides and Boy Scouts.
The Ridge Meadows Hospital Foundation will receive $17,000, while the hospice society will get $3,800.
This past year, the legion also made a $1,000 donation to a program that assists veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder.
Henry said that the B.C. legion has been the main sponsor for this program, participants of which are largely Canadian peacekeepers and Afghani veterans.
Globally, the legion provides $3,000 to the Royal Commonwealth Ex-Services League, a program that provides housing and assistance to veterans who are living elsewhere in the world.
The legion also supplies some emergency financial assistance to local veterans for medical care or needed items such as specialized wheel chairs and scooters, as well as granting two $1,000 bursaries a year to the dependents or grandchildren of veterans.
Poppy campaign funds also go towards an appreciation dinner the legion hosts each June for Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows veterans.
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