Community Corner
Local Veterans Sow the Seeds of Remembrance This Weekend
VFW's annual poppy drive will raise money for disabled and needy veterans
A Fairfax Station veterans group is sponsoring a Buddy Poppy Drive during Memorial Day weekend to remember those who gave their lives in service of their country.
Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 8469 is sponsoring the drive at Giant Food Stores in the Clifton Colonnade, University Mall, Oakton and Vienna on May 28 to 30. VFW members will distribute poppies from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. each day.
Disabled veterans hand make the poppies, small red flower arrangements, in Veterans Administration hospitals and are paid a small sum for their work. Poppies are then shipped nationwide for local distribution.
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VFW asks citizens to make a small donation in exchange for a poppy. Funds raised from the Buddy Poppy Drive are used to provide local financial and rehabilitation assistance to disabled and needy soldiers and their families.
Members of VFW have been sowing the seeds of remembrance since Memorial Day 1922. While these delicate crepe paper remembrances used to be a common sight in most American homes, their prevalence seemed to decline in the 1980's and 90's. Artificial poppies have recently experienced a resurgence in popularity, a likely result of the veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.
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A veteran of Pacific and Atlantic tours, Sandy LaCroix is among those VFW members who will volunteer for the Poppy drive this weekend.
"The Buddy Poppy Drive is instrumental in achieving our Post's mission each year,” LaCroix said. “Donations go a long way in providing help to veterans who need it.”
She also thanked Giant Food for participating in the effort. She hopes "that everyone will wear and display their poppies proudly."
The poppies themselves have a special significance.
Upon observing the Belgian battlefields of World War I, Canadian Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae said: "In Flanders fields, the poppies blow."
McCrae said those words while reviewing the land where his friend had been killed in action inspired this physician.
Many wondered how poppies could continue to flourish and grow wild on these decimated fields. In fact, the charred, upturned earth of the war torn countryside provided the perfect environment for the poppy seeds to spread, take root and flourish.
The Giant stores participating are at the Clifton Colonnade, 5740 Union Mill Rd. and University Mall at 10653 Braddock Rd.
