West Liberty Legion Auxiliary to sell poppies on May 21-22

History column- National Poppy Day is May 28

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09 Auxiliary members will be out and about town on Friday and Saturday, May 21-22, offering poppies. The distribution of this bright red memorial flower to the public is one of the oldest and most widely recognized programs of Legion Auxiliaries across the country.

Donation jars will be placed in some local businesses that won’t be covered by an Auxiliary member.

Donations are used to provide financial, social and emotional support to those who have served, as well as to their families.

National Poppy Day will, as always, be observed on the Friday before Memorial Day, which this year is May 28. On this and every day, gratitude goes out to those who have served, to those we have lost, and to those who continue to feel the impact of the sacrifices given for our country.

In researching the history on how the poppies all started, it seems the connection with the poppy and the fallen solider was solidified with one of the era’s most famous poems. ‘In Flanders Field,’ written by Canadian physician-surgeon Lt. Col. John McCrae in 1915:

In Flanders fields the poppies blow

Between crosses, row on row,

That mark our place; and in the sky

The larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow

Loved and were loved, and now we lie,

In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:

To you from falling hands we throw

The torch; be yours to hold it high.

If ye break faith with us who die

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

In Flanders fields.

McCrae was inspired to write the poem after presiding over the funeral of his friend and fellow soldier, 22-year-old Lt. Alexis Helmer. The two had been serving in the battlegrounds near the Belgium border named Flanders fields.

Helmer was buried in a makeshift grave with a simple wooden cross. Wild poppies were already beginning to bloom between the crosses marking the graves. As he was unable to help his friend and others who’d died, McCrae wanted to be a voice through his poem for the sacrifice they all made. He wanted survivors to take up the torch of their fight and to remember, even though red poppies covered the field.

According to legend, fellow soldiers retrieved the poem after McCrae, initially dissatisfied with his work, discarded it.

In Flanders Field gained widespread notoriety after McCrae was convinced to submit it for publication. It was subsequently translated into many languages and published around the world.

Unfortunately, McCrae did not survive the war, dieing at the age of 45 in 1918 of pneumonia.

In 1918 also, Moina Michael (1869-1944), an active, patriotic citizen and professor from Georgia, had taken a leave of absence. She went to work volunteering at the New York-based training headquarters for overseas YWCA workers, as her way of aiding the war efforts.

While on a break at a business conference in November of that year, Michael was glancing through a Ladies Home Journal and saw the McCrae poem. It was, she wrote, “a full spiritual experience. It seemed as though the silent voices again were vocal, whispering, in sighs of anxiety unto anguish.”

A fellow conference delegate unexpectedly offered Michael a $10 tip. She resolved to spend the windfall on silk poppies and to ask the conference attendees to wear them in homage.

Although a more difficult task than expected, Michael soon appeared with a silk poppy pinned to her coat, and she distributed 25 more to the conference attendees. She’d obtained the poppies from Wanamaker’s Department Store.

Michael then campaigned tirelessly, and on Feb. 14, 1919, the ‘torch and poppy’ emblem was launched. The poppy was adopted as the national symbol of remembrance.

After the war, Michael returned to her job as a professor, and taught a class of disabled servicemen. Soon she realized these servicemen were in desperate need of financial and occupational support.

Michael then conceived the idea of selling silk poppies as a fundraiser, and in 1920 the poppy became the official flower of the American Legion Family to memorialize the soldiers who fought and died during the war. In 1924, the distribution of poppies became a national program of the American Legion.

Michael went on to become a prominent humanitarian, and received numerous awards. She was known worldwide as the “Poppy Lady.”

The first poppy factory in the USA was in Pittsburgh in 1924. Poppies today, however, are mostly hand made by disabled veterans in vet hospitals and homes, as part of their therapeutic rehabilitation. Today, they are made of red crepe paper, not silk.

It’s recommended the poppy be worn with respect on one’s left side, over the heart. The red of the poppy represents the blood of those who gave their lives, the black button in the middle is for the mourning of those who never welcomed their loved ones back home, and the green leaf shows the hope that the grass and crops growing after the war brings.

The leaf of the poppy, if there is one, should be positioned at the orientation of 11 o’clock, to symbolize the 11th hour, of the 11th day, of the 11th month, the time that World War l formally ended.

Wear a red poppy on May 28 to honor the fallen and support the living who have worn our nation’s uniform.

Phyllis Owen Sterba is a historical columnist for the West Liberty Index and can be reached at paeowens@gmail.com or through the Index office by calling 319-627-2814. She is always looking for local history features.

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