(Angie Rolheiser/northeastNOW Staff)

By Angie Rolheiser

Honouring Veterans

Legion poppy campaign underway ahead of Remembrance Day

Nov 6, 2019 | 8:15 AM

Remembrance Day is less than a week away and members of the Melfort Legion are busy with preparations and their poppy campaign.

The Legion poppy campaign is on until Monday in businesses around the community that are willing to have the baskets on hand.

Poppy chairman Bob Ellis said they will begin visiting care homes and schools on Wednesday.

“If you don’t forget, the chances of another war happening get slimmer and slimmer and that’s what we try to avoid,” Ellis said. “Peace is all we want, and we don’t want to ever forget these guys that lost their lives and even the ones that didn’t, the ones who came back deserve the same recognition.”

Money raised during the poppy campaign goes into the poppy fund and it isn’t touched until it is needed according to Ellis.

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“It goes into trust and goes back into the community, every penny of it,” Ellis said.

There are a number of different things the funds could potentially go toward such as STARS Air Ambulance, and care homes.

“We try to keep veterans off the streets, we supply some money to the poppy fund in Regina because they have more access to veterans who are roaming the streets, we don’t find any in Melfort here,” Ellis said.

Ellis said that typically they see about 700 in attendance at their annual remembrance day ceremony which is taking place at Melfort Unit Comprehensive Collegiate at 10:45 a.m. sharp in the gymnasium. The last post is then at 11 a.m.

Wreaths will be laid by individuals, groups, organizations, and businesses in the area at the ceremony.

Ellis is entering his fifteenth year as the master of ceremonies.

“All I ever want to do in my life now is maintain the legion and maintain remembrance,” Ellis said. “We are guardians of remembrance and I am proud and pleased to be a member of an organization that is dedicated to doing just that.”

On Wednesday, Legion members will visit area care homes and perform a ceremony with a small choir. The two days after that, the elementary schools in Melfort and the school in Gronlid will host legionnaires. The students perform different skits for them and there is also a flag ceremony which Ellis called a ‘mini-version’ of what happens on Remembrance Day.

“Even the little kids are wearing a poppy and even if they don’t know what it means, that is the beginning,” Ellis said.

The poppy fund also provides the prizes to the students who win in the in-school Remembrance Day contests.

“We have a poster, poetry and essay contest and some of the stuff they do is utterly amazing,” Ellis said. “These are all kids from Grade 1 and up.”

Ellis added poppies can be worn by the public at any point in the year. He said that the poppy is to be worn on the left side of the chest, over the heart.

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angie.rolheiser@jpbg.ca

On Twitter:@Angie_Rolheiser