Buddy Poppy History

"In Flander's Field" describes a battlefield of crosses dotted with red poppies. The poem deeply touched the nation and the world, and, from that point on, poppies became known throughout the world as a memorial flower, a reminder of the lives lost in wartime.

"In Flanders Fields" by John McCrae
In Flanders Fields the poppies blow,
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky,
The larks, still bravely singing, fly,
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the dead.
Short days ago,
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved and now we lie,
In Flanders Fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe
To you, from failing hands, we throw,
The torch, be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us, who die,
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow,
In Flanders Fields.

Selling replicas of the original Flanders' poppy originated in some of the allied countries immediately after the Armistice. In 1921, the Franco-American Children's League began the first nationwide sale of poppies to benefit children in the devastated areas of France and Belgium.

Madam Guerin, who was recognized as the "poppy lady" from France, sought and received the cooperation of the VFW in 1922 after the Franco-American Children's League was dissolved. The VFW conducted its first poppy distribution before Memorial Day in 1922 becoming the first veterans' organization to organize a nationwide distribution. The poppy soon was adopted as the official memorial flower of the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States.

It was during the 1923 encampment that the VFW decided that VFW Buddy Poppies be assembled by disabled and needy veterans who would be paid for their work to provide them with some form of financial assistance. The plan was formally adopted during the VFW's 1923 encampment. The next year, disabled veterans at the Buddy Poppy factory in Pittsburgh, assembled VFW Buddy Poppies. The designation "Buddy Poppy" was adopted at that time.

In February 1924, the VFW registered the name "Buddy Poppy" with the U.S. Patent Office. A certificate was issued on May 20, 1924, granting the VFW all trademark rights in the name of Buddy under the classification of artificial flowers. The VFW has made that trademark a guarantee that all poppies bearing that name and the VFW label are genuine products of the work of disabled and needy veterans. No other organization, firm or individual can legally use the name "Buddy" Poppy.

http://www.vfw.org/index.cfm?fa=cmty.leveld&did=128

---------------------------------------

Purchase your's today. It's a long and proud tradition of respect for our cherished veterans.

Stephen Harvey
Past Jr. Vice Commander & Life Member
VFW Post # 1003
Jefferson City, MO

Poppy Day - that's what we used to call it when I was in grade school. The Memorial Day parade was a pretty big deal, almost as big as the 4th of July but without the carnival. As part of the memorial ceremonies, the local businesses would sponser a poster contest for the kids in grades 1-8. The school would provide the poster board and then everyone in class devoted some time during the day to work on creating a poster. I usually went through 1 or 2 before deciding on the final design. God, we had some creative kids back then. All the posters were displayed prominently in the storefronts throughout town. I don't recall if they gave away any prizes or not. It seemed that the biggest thrill a kid could have was to have their picture taken with their prize winning poster and two or three members of the American Legion Auxilliary (their was no VFW here then) and have the newspaper display it prominently on the front page.

After the parade almost everyone gathered at the park by the memorial rock. The memorial rock had the names of all the servicemen and women who lost their lives in service to the country. They played Taps and then fired off three volleys over the rock. Anyhow, that's what they used to do in Smalltown. We still have the parade, walk to memorial rock, Taps, and the rifle volleys but the kid's posters disappeared along with the local businesses. The newspaper doesn't cover it anymore either since the editor of Smalltown sold out to the regional congomerate.

BTW - hubby already has his poppies.

This is truly a worthy program.

Thanks for the link so all can get their poppys this year.