Where poppies grow: Barbara Hunt (left), Poppy Chairman for American Legion Auxiliary Unit #32, and Debra Hamby (right), President of Unit 32, look on as Covington Mayor Kim Carter signs a proclamation designating Saturday, Nov. 8 as Poppy Day. In anticipation of the upcoming Veterans Day on Nov. 11, the American Legion Auxiliary were at various locations in Covington on Nov. 8 to request donations and ask residents to wear the familiar red, handcrafted poppies honoring America’s war casualties.
In 1921, the American Legion Auxiliary adopted the poppy as the organization’s memorial flower and pledged its use to benefit our servicemen and their families. Today, the poppy continues to provide a financial and therapeutic benefit to those hospitalized and disabled veterans who construct them, as well as benefiting thousands of other veterans and their families. No matter what the cost of maintaining and supplying the Poppy Shops, the memorial poppy is never sold, but given in exchange for a contribution.
