Thank you! Thank you! You were extra generous in your contributions to our Veterans Relief Fund on Veterans Day. We set a new single day record of $4,573.77, which was $270 more than our previous record set on the Saturday before Memorial Day 2006.

This fund is restricted to providing relief to veterans, veterans’ families, their wives, widows and their children.

The total contributions to our Veterans Relief Fund from our two VFW Buddy Poppy distributions this calendar year were totaled just over $10,075. VFW posts in Georgia marvel at the generosity of our local citizens. I am a great believer that these funds should not build up in our bank accounts.

Since the last collection our post has donated $1,100 to the VFW National Home for Children in Eaton Rapids, Mich., purchased 12 Christmas baskets for needy veteran families who have veterans in the Atlanta VA hospital and/or nursing home for $510, will purchase (12/20) Christmas baskets for all the veterans and the wives and widows of veterans who are residing in Southland Nursing Home at a cost of approximately $800.

We continue to send $100 each month to our VFW representative at the Atlanta VA complex to buy toiletries, stamps, stationery, books, socks, sweat shirts and other needed items. (We are the only VFW Post in Georgia making monetary contributions to this VA facility).

That’s the good news. The bad news is hardly anybody knows why we distribute these silk flowers on the Saturdays before Memorial Day and Veterans Day. And even worse, hardly anybody wears them.

First if you know that the VFW Buddy Poppy is the “Flower of Remembrance,” then you can understand that they must be worn to show that you remember the sacrifice of those heroes who gave their lives to preserve and protect our liberties.

That’s why this silk flower is attached onto paper covered wire, so you can fasten it to your clothing through the fabric, a buttonhole or wrapped around a button. Young ladies and girls can wrap them around a hang of hair.

Ask anyone who has visited Canada or Great Britain on or near Nov. 11, which is celebrated as Remembrance Day in both countries, and they will tell you nearly everyone anywhere you look is wearing a red poppy. In Canada they wear their red poppies for nearly all of October and through Remembrance Day. I wear my VFW Buddy Poppy every Sunday to Mass and out to breakfast and at anytime I wear my sports coat.

So now you know why we give you the VFW Buddy Poppies. Now will you wear them on Memorial Day and Veterans Day and maybe on a few more days near these veterans holidays?

Veterans, let me say if we don’t wear poppies as an example, how can we be critical of others who are not wearing them? I’ll be watching to see if more of us wear them when we should.

Bob Konrad
Quartermaster VFW Post 9949
WWII U.S. Navy veteran
Peachtree City, Ga.

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