Contributed Article
The small red flower symbolizes the bloodshed of millions of Allied soldiers in World War I defending our freedom.
The poppy program began shortly after WWI, founded by Madame E. Guerin, who became concerned that the free world was “forgetting too soon those sleeping in Flanders Fields.”
The Buddy Poppy program was inspired by Colonel John McCrae’s poem “ In Flanders Fields”
“In Flanders Fields the poppies blow,
Between the crosses, row on row
That mark our place; and in the sky,
The larks, still bravely singing, fly,
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the dead.
Short days ago,
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved and now we lie,
In Flanders Fields.
The larks, still bravely singing, fly,
Take up our quarrel with the foe
To you, from failing hands, we throw,
The torch, be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us, who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow,
In Flanders Fields.”
In 1922, the VFW agreed to take over this project and adopted the poppy as its official memorial flower. To perpetuate the memory of deceased veterans, and to comfort survivors.
In 1923, a plan evolved to pay disabled and needy American veterans to make the poppies, and a VFW poppy factory was set up in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania.
The name came from these disabled poppy makers, the flower’s trademark. The name “grew” from the poppy makers’ memories of buddies who never came back from the war. All over the country, the little red flower became known as the “Buddy Poppy.”
In February of 1924, the VFW registered the name “Buddy Poppy” with the US Patent Office.
Today, disabled veterans make the flowers in 11 locations in the United States.
Sales/donations for the Buddy Poppies go toward the aid, assistance, rehabilitation, and comfort of needy or disabled veterans or members of the Armed Forces and their dependents, and the widows and orphans of deceased veterans.
The Gila Valley VFW and Auxiliary will coordinate a Buddy Poppy drive on Saturday, Oct. 24, from 9 a.m. to noon. Please look for us in front of these supportive local businesses: Thrifty’s Market, Tractor Supply, and Chase Bank.
