The 2023 Poppy Campaign is officially underway in the Town of The Blue Mountains.
Royal Canadian Legion Branch 281 President Joe Macdonald officially launched the campaign with a special presentation to Mayor Andrea Matrosovs at council’s meeting on Oct. 30.
Macdonald was joined by fellow legion members to present the mayor with the first official poppy of the campaign at the meeting. The campaign runs from the last Friday of October to November 11.
All donations raised during the campaign are used to support programs across the county to assist veterans and their families.
Matrosovs, a member of the local legion, said she was “deeply moved” for her first chance as mayor to assist with the launch of the campaign locally and she called the local legion “an integral part of this community’s fabric.”
In a brief speech, Macdonald said in 1921 Anna Guerin from France imagined the idea of the Remembrance Poppy after being inspired by John McCrae’s poem “In Flanders Fields.”
The Great War Veterans Association, the precursor to the legion, adopted the idea in 1921.
“The poppy is worn on the left lapel, close to the heart,” said Macdonald.
