For more than 75 years, the VFW’s Buddy Poppy program has raised millions of dollars in support of veterans’ welfare and the well being of their dependents.
Post and auxiliary members will be on the streets of Annandale Thursday, Friday and Saturday, May 24, 25 and 26 distributing Buddy Poppies.
Since 1922, the Buddy Poppy has been an integral part of the VFW community. As VFW’s official memorial flower, the Poppy represents the bloodshed by American service members. It reiterates that VFW will not forget their sacrifices.
The poppy movement was inspired by Canadian Army Col. John McCrae’s famous poem, "In Flanders Fields."
Poppies were originally distributed by the Franco-American Children’s League to benefit children in the devastated areas of France and Belgium following WWI.
In 1922, VFW conducted a campaign and got Poppies from France. Members soon discovered it took too long to get the flowers in from France and they came up with a better idea. Disabled, hospitalized and aging veterans could make the paper flowers and ship them out to the members for distribution.
And so it was known, for veterans in VA hospitals and in state veterans’ homes, every day would be VFW Buddy Poppy Day. These men and women assemble the Poppies, tie them in bunches, and pack them in boxes for shipment to the Posts and Ladies Auxiliaries. VFW pays the disabled veteran for the work. Poppy assembly is often used as a therapy program to provide exerise for fingers and hands crippled by wounds, disease and the effects of old age.
Another reason poppies are so important is because all proceeds from distribution are used for veteran’s welfare or for the well being of their needy dependents and the orphans of veterans.
More than 2,100 children of veterans have been, or are being cared for in the VFW National Home in Eaton Rapids, Mich., thanks to a portion of poppy funds.