Stacks of trays fill a corner of Moose Jaw’s Royal Canadian Legion Branch No. 59 games room, a sign that the organization is preparing to launch its 2022 poppy campaign.
The legion has four teams preparing to deliver hundreds of poppy trays to businesses and organizations throughout the community, while it has 10 teams of people visiting businesses attempting to sell wreaths, explained Sue Knox, poppy campaign chairwoman.
The veterans’ organization plans to deliver the trays between Wednesday, Oct. 26 and Friday, Oct. 28, with Poppy Day scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 29, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. This is when dozens of volunteers stand outside on street corners — or near businesses — and offer passersby poppies during an “all-out blitz.”
Some places where volunteers will stand on Poppy Day include the corners of Main Street and High Street, the South Hill Mall, Safeway, Sobeys liquor store, Co-op, Superstore, the Town ‘n’ Country Mall, Giant Tiger, Home Hardware, Staples and Walmart.
The legion wants to sell poppies at the WHL Warriors’ Oct. 29 game; if it can’t, it will still have the Events Centre arena all to itself on Friday, Nov. 11, as the in-person community Remembrance Day ceremony returns.
This may be Knox’s first year as poppy chairwoman, but she has been on the committee for several years. With a laugh, she says she’s been busy as she co-ordinates the campaign, attempts to ensure there are enough volunteers and deals with businesses.
“Typically, we go to Tim Horton’s and one of the Subway sandwich groups and request, in lieu of a cash donation, that they donate some food for us to go along with poppy day … ,” she said. “That’s this week (visiting them) because we don’t need it for two weeks.”
The committee has re-structured some wreath routes to accommodate significant changes in the business community, including new shops opening, older businesses changing locations and others declining to accept a wreath, Knox continued. The group wants to ensure it can cover the entire city.
“We try not to miss anyone. We try and cover all the businesses, so they don’t feel left out or missed because they changed locations,” she added.
Besides legion and non-legion volunteers, the committee hopes the three local cadet groups permit their youths to help hand out poppies, said Knox. It would be great to have back those uniformed youths.
“We would strategically place them where we get a lot of traffic,” she continued.
The legion has chosen to place its annual Remembrance Day display at the new Canadian Tire this year because there is more foot traffic there, said Knox. The organization re-assesses its display location yearly to see if it is generating donations and exposure; if not, it moves the display.
With a laugh, Knox added, “I hope it’s (the poppy campaign) successful. It takes a lot of work to get it off the ground. It’s the most important event the legion does on an annual basis and supports a lot of our veterans and their families in the local area. So, we always do our best to make sure it’s a success.”
