If you’ve been out and about over the past week you’ve probably seen the boxes of poppies in stores all over Regina and Saskatchewan distributed by local Legion chapters. We all know the historical significance of the poppy, but do you really know what your donation goes too? It goes far beyond what you might think.
“All the funds that come in to the poppy campaign to towards helping someone somewhere,” explained Regina Legion poppy campaign chair Darwin Dopson. “We help fund military family resource centres which are located in Regina and Dundurn, we try to re-establish homeless veterans when we know of any, and we supply funding for service dogs of veterans.”
With the help of the Legion, the poppy campaign also funds cadet units, scholarships, and emergency services for veterans, which were recently required by a local veteran.
“We had a veteran just a couple of years ago who was seriously burned in a fire and we flew him out to Vancouver for life saving treatment,” Dopson said.
In addition to helping veterans and their families, the poppy fund also helps RCMP members who may need assistance with similar issues that veterans are going through.
As one could imagine, it takes several volunteers to distribute the poppies to Regina businesses leading up to the last Friday of October. Dopson estimates there are six hundred poppy trays around the city.
“It takes a lot of planning, a lot of coordination, and a lot of work by our volunteers who put those trays out,” stated Dopson.
Once November 11th is over volunteers must go back out to those businesses to collect the poppy trays and all the donated money for the poppy fund. What should you do with your poppy after Remembrance Day? Dopson says you can save the poppy for next year and just make a donation each year, you can place them on a relatives grave if they were a veteran, or throw the poppy out and get a new one the following year with a donation.
Saskatchewanians can also make a donation online by clicking here.
Listen to our full interview with Darwin Dopson below:
