Originally known as Decoration Day, Memorial Day (as it is now known) is a day of remembrance, which originated in the years following the Civil War and became an official federal holiday in 1971. This Sunday, May 29, the Broad Channel VFW will be hosting our community’s annual Memorial Day parade. This event is a testament to our town’s desire to honor those men and women who have sacrificed so much for our freedom on this sacred day.
The parade will start at 1:00 p.m. with a wreath laying ceremony at the 17th Road Park Flag Pole and then travel along Cross Bay Boulevard to the George Riekers Veterans Memorial Park for another wreath laying and closing ceremonies.
As always, our honored guests will be those veterans from St. Albans Hospital who will be joined by our own local veteran members of the Broad Channel VFW and American Legion as well as our elected officials and other community organizations.
Please keep in mind that fewer than 10 percent of Americans can claim the title “veteran.” While the phrase “uncommon valor was a common virtue,” has been so often repeated that it risks becoming a cliché, it is no less true. In 1789 George Washington said, “The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional as to how they perceive the veterans of earlier wars were treated and appreciated by their country.”
And while standing on Cross Bay Boulevard watching the Broad Channel Memorial Day Parade on Sunday and your child asks why someone handed him or her a red poppy, take some time to explain the history of this tradition which, unfortunately, is either unknown to or forgotten by many of us.
Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, a doctor with the Canadian forces was serving in Belgium and after witnessing the death of his friend, looked out upon the battlefield and was taken aback at the sight of all the bright red poppies growing in the midst of the carnage. As a result, Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae put pencil to paper and penned the poem “We Shall Not Sleep” which later became more widely known as “In Flanders Field.”
The idea for a Flanders Fields Memorial Poppy came to Miss Moina Michael of Georgia while she was working at the YMCA Overseas War Secretaries’ headquarters on a Saturday morning in November 1918, two days before the Armistice was declared at 11 o’clock on November 11. The Twenty-fifth Conference of the Overseas YMCA War Secretaries was in progress. A young soldier left a copy of the November Ladies Home Journal on Moina’s desk and in it she came across a page which carried a vivid color illustration for the poem “We Shall Not Sleep” (later named “In Flanders Fields”) by the Canadian Army doctor John McCrae.
Reading the poem, Moina was transfixed by the last verse - “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.”
She then conceived an idea and started the practice of wearing a red poppy on Memorial day in honor of those who died serving the nation during war. She was the first to wear one, and soon began selling poppies to her friends and co-workers with the proceeds going to benefit servicemen in need.
The Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States was the first veteran organization to promote a nationally organized campaign for the annual distribution of poppies assembled by American disabled and needy veterans. In 1924, the VFW patented the name “Buddy Poppy” for their version of the artificial flower. The sale of Buddy Poppies represents no profit to any VFW post. All the money donated by the public for Buddy Poppies is used in the cause of veteran’s welfare.
Following the 1924 sale, the VFW believed it would stimulate local sales if the poppies they used were assembled by disabled veterans in hospitals within their own jurisdiction. The 1924 encampment of the VFW at Atlantic City granted this privilege, under the provision that all poppies would be produced according to specifications set forth by the National Buddy Poppy Committee, and that all poppies would be assembled by disabled veterans in government hospitals and by needy veterans in workshops supervised by the VFW.
Around the same year, 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.
Please make it a point to spend a few moments of your time to walk up to Cross Bay Boulevard to view the parade this Sunday to show your support for our veterans and to express your appreciation for those veterans that have sacrificed their lives for our freedom.
After the parade all of you are invited to the VFW Post on Shad Creek Road for a BBQ and a chance to greet and thank our men and women who have served us so well and to remember those who have made the ultimate sacrifice so that they may not be forgotten.
No comments:
Post a Comment