Aging veterans need help with poppy drive
Last Updated: Tuesday, October 20, 2009 | 12:04 PM AT
CBC News
Catherine Kerr, volunteer chairperson the Charlottetown Legion Poppy and Welfare Campaign, packs up a wreath order. (CBC) Legions on P.E.I. have put out a call to service groups in the province to help with this year's poppy campaign.
With old age slowing them down, only about 50 or 60 of the Charlottetown Legion's 400 members will take part in this year's poppy campaign.
"A lot of them still want to [take part], but they can't," Catherine Kerr, chair of the Charlottetown Legion Poppy and Welfare Campaign, told CBC News Monday.
"Physically, they can't, and they know they can't. But the desire is still there, and they'll come and they'll say, 'If only I could'."
For this year's poppy campaign, P.E.I.'s 10 legions are asking service groups such as the Lions Club and sea cadets to help out. The legions also need volunteers to sell their familiar wreaths.
The Charlottetown Legion is hoping more orders will come through its website in order to ease volunteers' workload. (CBC) Those wreaths can now be ordered online, which, the legion hopes, will ease the workload of aging volunteers.
The legion is also working to educate younger generations. Remembrance Day information kits have been sent out to schools.
"We have to get the word to our children and say, like, this is what we expect you to do," said Kerr. "This is what your grandfather and your uncle … was overseas for."
The legion has relaxed membership rules in recent years to attract new members. Ottawa has broadened its definition of veterans to include retired RCMP and all members of the military, regardless of whether they fought in a war.
The poppy campaign starts Oct. 30.
