The annual sale of Buddy Poppies by the Hollister post of the
Veterans of Foreign Wars will take place May 16 and 17 to benefit
disabled veterans as well as widows and orphans of deceased
veterans.
The annual sale of Buddy Poppies by the Hollister post of the Veterans of Foreign Wars will take place May 16 and 17 to benefit disabled veterans as well as widows and orphans of deceased veterans.
This week, the Hollister City Council also proclaimed those two days as “Buddy Poppy Days in the City of Hollister.”
Poppies became associated with war after a poem called “In Flander’s Field” was published during World War I. The author, Col. John McCrae of Canada, described the flowers in a battleground of dead soldiers.
“After the battle was over, spring plants came up,” said Charlie Scott, commander of the Hollister VFW post. “It was aglow with spring poppies.”
The VFW’s Buddy Poppy program has raised millions of dollars nationally to support veterans and their families. Disabled veterans assemble the Buddy Poppies and the national VFW will distribute poppies to the Hollister post, Scott said.
Members of the VFW and its auxiliary will go to sites throughout Hollister, including the post office, Albertson’s, Nob Hill and Safeway, where the flowers can be purchased for a donation.
“When we’re out there offering, we’ll carry with us a copy of the poem,” Scott said.
The first national sale of Buddy Poppies was in 1921, when the Franco-American Children’s League began a national sale to benefit children in France and Belgium. Scott said the flowers have been sold in Hollister since 1947.
