It has been a big struggle for this year’s poppy campaign.
The flowers that support our veterans became available by donation on October 30th.
But President of the Moncton legion Branch 6 Robert Dupuis says it has been disappointing so far, “We are well into the poppy campaign and I don’t see a lot of people wearing poppies. Our poppy revenue is probably 25 per cent of what it usually is.”
Due to COVID-19, Dupuis says they were unable to have someone sitting with the poppies at stores, and accepting donations. Poppy boxes have all been placed at retailers who wanted a box this year.
The money raised goes towards quality of life for veterans, “One of the biggest things we have, is our homeless veterans. We also have people who they only have one or two pensions. When our veterans have to make a choice between buying medication or buying food or paying the rent, we have to help. We try to give between $20,000 to $25,000 in quality of life, including specialty mattresses, special chairs they can sit in. We also have some who have a special craft, life woodworking and we supply the costs for that.” Dupuis says.
He adds the Legion also gave $1000 bursaries to 25 needy children this year, and invited all of the schools to take part in the Literacy poppy contest.
Poppies will be available until the end of the day on November 10th, which is the day before Remembrance Day.
