SL Auxiliary to offer poppies
Gov. Mark Dayton has proclaimed May as Poppy Month in Minnesota. Members of the Silver Lake American Legion Auxiliary Unit 141 will be distributing poppies in Silver Lake on Friday, May 19. In addition, there will be containers of poppies on counters of local businesses throughout the end of May. All donations go to the benefit disabled or hospitalized veterans.
The poppy program became one of the auxiliary’s national programs in 1924. The idea for it started in 1918 when Moina Michael was given a copy of a magazine with the poem, “We Shall Not Sleep,” by Col. John McCrae, M.D. Later this poem was renamed “In Flanders Field.” The poem notes the blooming red poppies among rows of white crosses on the deserted battlefields of northern France and western Belgium. Michael distributed 25 poppies to conference attendees and later became known as the “Poppy Lady.”
Today, poppy construction is done by disabled veterans as a rehabilitative activity, providing a small personal income.