Support Fairfax Station Veterans This Memorial Day

As you happily munch away on a cheeseburger from your grill with family and friends this Memorial Day, don’t forget about the local veterans in your community for whom this day is dedicated. The will be setting up donation tables at the local grocery stores for their bi-annual Buddy Poppy Drive.

“We used to be able to raise as much as $14,000 in the past,” said former Post Commander and Post member Floyd Houston, “but due to cutbacks in hours at the sites and the economy…we expect to bring in about $6,000 this year.”

The poppy drives are one of the biggest fundraisers for the local VFW, which helps fund local veteran-related charities in the area with the poppy donations.

Disabled veterans in local VA hospitals are given a small stipend to make the “poppies.” The “poppies,” small plastic and cloth faux flowers (see photo), are then collected and distributed at the local supermarkets.

The Buddy Poppy Drives have been in existence for 90 years, since 1922, to financially help disabled veterans. Naturally, there are also donation jars at all the local VFW tables where the poppies are distributed and contributions are encouraged if you pick one up.

(For more on the Buddy Poppy Drive history, click .)

Post Commander Josh Lawton said he hopes the Post will donate 3,000 poppies this year. The poppies are handed out on Memorial Day weekend and again during Veteran’s Day weekend.

If you would like to contribute to the poppy drives, the VFW will be at the grocery store, the in Burke, in Burke, Vienna Giant, and the Oakton Giant from Saturday, May 26, until Memorial Day, May 28 from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Donations are always accepted via mail or drop-off to the as well.

Also on Memorial Day, the Fairfax Station VFW will partner with the Fairfax City American Legion Post 177 for a service dedicated to those who died in battle. The ceremony is at 9 a.m. on the lawn of the old Fairfax courthouse (on the corner of Route 123 and Main Street in Fairfax City) alongside the Fairfax War Memorial, a simple rock obelisk that many overlook.

“The memorial is right there on the lawn, kind of close to the side-pole. Probably many have seen it and don’t even recognize it as anything but a rock,” said Houston.

The names of all the local heroes who died in World War II, Korea and Vietnam War are inscribed upon that rock. The VFW Post 8469 and American Legion members will read all those names as well as all the names of local heroes who have died in the War on Terror.

Houston, who writes the script for the Memorial Day commemorations and rings the bell during the event, estimates about 300 names in all will be read on Monday. The two local veteran groups will then hold a ceremony at the Fairfax City Cemetery commemorating those lost, Lawton said.