Veterans group marks day with traditional poppies
Published 6:51 am Monday, March 3, 2008
Red poppies that serve as reminders of the sacrifice made by those who served in the armed forces will be distributed by members of Edmonds Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 8870 Friday and Saturday, Nov. 11-12 at area grocery stores.
Veterans and their wives will be at TOP Food &Drug, 21900 Highway 99, and QFC at 22828 100th Ave. W., from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. exchanging remembrance poppies for donations to help veterans in need.
Phil Sacks, 75, a Korean War veteran, said everyone involved with the poppy drive is a volunteer. “Every cent collected” goes to support the state’s two veterans homes in Orting and Retsil and assist individual vets in need of a helping hand, he explained.
Veterans who need assistance should contact the Post’s service officer, Roosevelt Ward, at 1-888-242-1950. It’s not necessary he or she be a member of a VFW post but they should live in this area.
It’s getting increasingly difficult to recruit vets to help with the drive because “the old guys are dyin’” and the “Korean and Vietnam guys aren’t joinin’ (the VFW),” Sacks lamented. Wives, he added, help out where needed.
What’s not difficult, though, is attracting support of grateful members of the public who share with the vets during the poppy drive their own war-time stories and memories of years of poppy-wearing, VFW members said.
Sacks said Post 8870 is grateful for the loyal support of host-stores TOP Food &Drug and QFC. “If we had more guys to man the poppy drive, we’d be at more stores,” he added.
