Trevor Campbell was excited October 20, honoured to be making the first presentation of a 2023 poppy to the 14 Wing Greenwood command team. But, not as honoured as Commander Colonel Jeff Davis and Wing Chief Warrant Officer Jonathan Proulx were to welcome representatives of Royal Canadian Legion Branch 098 Alvin H. Foster Kingston to the base.
In 30 years as a Legion member, Campbell, currently Branch 098’s second vice-president, had never chaired the Poppy Campaign before the 2022 campaign; working at Soldiers Memorial Hospital in Middleton for that year’s formal poppy presentation to 14 Wing leadership, he was pleased to be in attendance this year, with branch president Sergeant (retired) Weldon Rideout and Major (retired) Carol Molyneaux.
“2022 was very successful,” Campbell said. “I was so nervous – it was my first, but people were waiting to return to the poppy campaign and Remembrance Day activities after two years of the pandemic. And, last year was one of the most beautiful days of the year – Greenwood was the temperature hot spot in all of Canada.”
The Kingston Legion was happy to provide poppies to the community in 2022, and has been busy through the past year turning $28,000 in poppy donations into programs and services for local veterans.
“We don’t sell poppies,” Rideout said. “It’s not about raising money for the Legion – it’s all donation, and the whole campaign is about awareness, for veterans.”
Twenty-two thousand poppies are now being provided to Western Kings and Eastern Annapolis county communities. A work party at the Legion in mid-October packed the poppies, and cleaned and labelled hundreds of distribution boxes, destined for retail and business locations, schools and community settings. The Legion itself, with the support of volunteers and members of 517 Flight Lieutenant McLean Royal Canadian Air Cadets, which the Legion sponsors; will tend more substantial poppy stations and displays at the Greenwood Mall, Walmart, Sobeys and Canadian Tire in Greenwood; and Superstore and the NSLC in Kingston in coming days.
“This year’s season is coming together,” Campbell said.
Two thousand poppies – plus the two for Davis and Proulx – were delivered October 20 to 14 Wing. Canadian Armed Forces members will wear the poppy as part of their daily uniform from the last Friday in October, this year, October 27, through to November 11.
“Thank you for coming,” Davis said to the Legion contingent October 20, “and we’ll see you a number of times over the next couple of weeks.”
14 Wing Greenwood supports over a dozen community remembrance activities, including formal parades at cenotaphs throughout Western Nova Scotia. Members are also volunteering informally at schools, churches and community programs; and through the National Veterans’ Week Speakers Program.
