Poppies are now available from the Taber Legion

TIMES PHOTO BY IAN CROFT

By Ian Croft
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
news@tabertimes.com

With it being November, Remembrance Day will soon be upon us. As is tradition, last week on Oct. 28, the Taber Legion as well as Legions across Canada, hosted a Poppy Ceremony where they handed out poppies to delegates before opening up donations for people to receive poppies this year.

At this event, some of the delegates spoke about this ceremony and they all also shared their thoughts on Remembrance Day in general.

“The poppy ceremony that we are doing today is a yearly ritual on the poppy rollout on the last Friday of October. This year it happens to be the 28th. We hand out the poppies to the dignitary of the town and they in turn give their people a poppy for the ceremony,” said Abe Andres, Taber’s Legion president, before he talked about the purpose of the ceremony. “Get them all started with the right ideas and the right thoughts in their mind so that Remembrance Day is the day of remembrance, and it is very well attended. Remembrance Day in general is a day that the whole country — in fact, the whole world needs to remember the men and women that gave the ultimate sacrifice to keep our world in peace and harmony, which is being eroded by so many avenues of government. That is sad, but Remembrance Day is to remember our veterans who gave the ultimate sacrifice.”

“This is actually a very special event for any given year for this particular purpose — the poppy kick-off, and a very important traditional event related to what the poppy ceremony is all about,” said Taber Mayor Andrew Prokop. “As such, after the ceremony, the poppy box would be going out to different locations, and be getting set for November 11, Remembrance Day. I’m happy to be a part of this for sure.”

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