Royal Canadian Legion Poppy Campaign begins Oct. 25

Royal Canadian Legion Poppy Campaign begins Oct. 25

Ruby Pratka, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

editor@qctonline.com

Over the next two weeks, poppy boxes will begin popping up in shopping malls, box stores and coffee shops across the region as the Royal Canadian Legion 2024 Poppy Campaign gets underway. The campaign begins Oct. 25 and runs until Remembrance Day, Nov. 11.

Richard Roger is the poppy campaign director for Branch 265 of the Legion, based in Sainte-Foy, which covers the Quebec City region. He said that in the past few years, the Legion has run into challenges running the Poppy Campaign, due to a lack of volunteers and fewer business owners offering to distribute poppies to their customers and collect donations. “There are still volunteers [who hand out poppies in person] in major stores or at the Château Frontenac on weekends,” he said. In recent years, local cadet corps members and their parents have handed out poppies, along with veterans, their spouses, family members and friends.

Roger, who is a veteran, said he took “great pride” in seeing people wearing poppy pins around town. The poppy “says that people recognize our sacrifices and are supporting us,” he said.

“In Quebec, in past years, Remembrance Day was less taught in schools, but more and more schools have requested speakers in classrooms and entered the Legion’s national poem and poster competitions,” Roger said. “The English-speaking schools participate more, maybe because parents and teachers have heard about [in-school Remembrance Day events] from elsewhere in Canada.” He speculated that seeing soldiers help out during wildfires, floods, COVID outbreaks and ice storms in Canada in recent years has made the military’s contribution more obvious to Canadian civilians. “In those communities [where the army helped evacuate wildfire and flood survivors], I don’t think we’ll have any trouble handing out poppies,” he said.

Roger said Branch 265 raised more than $80,000 after expenses from the 2023 Poppy Campaign, of which about $33,000 went to organizations providing support to veterans, such as the Maison Paul-Triquet seniors’ home, more than $15,000 went to scholarships for the children and grandchildren of veterans and $5,000 went to veterans and their families in immediate need. Local cadet corps also received funds. Thousands of poppies appeared on scarves and lapels across the region.

“Wearing the poppy is a way to keep people’s memories alive, to respond to the sacrifices made in Korea, in Afghanistan, in Bosnia. During the two weeks before Remembrance Day, that’s our time,” said Roger’s colleague, André Lavallée, also a veteran, who is co-ordinating this year’s Remembrance Day ceremony at the Cross of Sacrifice.

“If we stop wearing the poppy, in 10 years, people will forget,” Roger said.

Grande Allée to close for Nov. 11 ceremony

Lavallée said the traditional ceremony will take place once again in front of the Cross of Sacrifice on Grande Allée, starting at 10 a.m. on Nov. 11.

“Grande Allée will be closed from 9:30 onward, [soldiers] will march down from the Citadelle, there will be prayers and a wreath-laying by federal and provincial dignitaries, dip- lomats and civilian groups,” he said. A cannon will be fired at 11 a.m., to mark the armistice which ended the First World War, signed at 11 a.m. on Nov. 11, 1918. A flypast by military helicopters is also planned, weather permitting. “It is a public ceremony; the best place to watch is on the north side of Grande Allée in front of the National Assembly,” Lavallée said.

“If you are a veteran and you want to participate in the ceremony, there are two buses that will bring people from the Legion hall on Boul. Hamel to Grande Allée and back,” said Lavallée. “After the ceremony, if people would like to stop by the Legion hall and have a coffee and a chat, they’re very welcome.”

Branch 265 looking for new home

In addition to the poppy campaign, Branch 265 is also running a Chase the Ace lottery to raise money for a larger hall. “We’ve rented the current hall on Boul. Hamel for the last 10 or so years, and we’d love to be owners and to have a bigger space. We are starting to have more people show up at our activities, which is a good problem to have, but if we have 60 people coming to a supper, it gets a bit tight. We want to be able to welcome everyone,” Lavallée said.

To learn more about the Legion, find out where to get a poppy in your neighbourhood, volunteer with the Poppy Campaign, attend the Remembrance Day ceremony as a veteran, involve your school or cadet corps in Remembrance activities, buy Chase the Ace tickets or contribute to the Jean-Charles Forbes Fund to support Branch 265’s relocation, call 581-742-9267 or email coquelicotlegion265@outlook.com.

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