![]() ![]() ![]() She would go on to promote the wearing of poppies on each Armistice Day. In November 1918, Moina Michael, who was working at the YMCA Overseas War Secretaries headquarters in New York, was inspired by McCrae’s poem and purchased silk poppies to be worn on the anniversary of the Armistice. While the author of In Flanders Fields was a Canadian, the origins of the poppy campaign can be traced back to France and the United States. The campaign is often seen as “aid for the living from the dead.” In 2007, $16.4 million was raised. The money raised helps those who have served or who now find themselves in need. A donation to the annual campaign is strictly a personal choice. The centre went back to black in 2002 to reflect the colours of the poppies in Flanders.Īs always, poppies are distributed freely. The original design of the poppy featured the black centre but in 1980 the centre’s colour was changed to green. A pin through its black centre, helps attach it to clothing. The lapel poppy features a red piece of moulded plastic covered with flocking (a velvet-like material). Each year in the two weeks leading up to Remembrance Day, some 19 million poppies are distributed across Canada. That poem, in turn, became the inspiration for The Royal Canadian Legion poppy campaign as we know it today. Its colour reminded soldiers of the blood lost on that very ground, and inspired Canadian John McCrae to write his famous poem, In Flanders Fields. Yet out of that turmoil a determined wildflower, the poppy, began to flourish. Blasts from artillery and mines during the First World War churned up the earth so much that none of the usual mix of crops and vegetation had a chance to grow. ![]()
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