Area vets make 214,000 memorial poppies
By ROB PRICE THE COURIER-ADVOCATE

PHOTO BY ROB PRICE U.S. Army veteran Glenn Bulkley of Bath prepares a memorial poppy for distribution this week in preparation for Memorial Day on May 28.

BATH - This is the week for poppies

American Legion Auxiliary volunteers along with members of the Charles E. Wescott Post 173 will distribute the familiar red, handcrafted flowers throughout the Bath area to honor America's war dead.

The memorial poppies are given to individuals in exchange for contributions and can be worn throughout the year. They evoke the poppies described in John McCrea's 1915 war poem "In Flanders Fields."

This year, 12 area veterans who are out-patients at the Bath VA participated in the Auxiliary's poppy program, assembling more than 214,000 poppies that are distributed to Veterans groups across the country.

According to Mary Jane Orr, chairman of this year's poppy program, veterans build each nine-piece poppy by hand to supplement physical and psychological therapy. "The veteran makes the poppy and is paid a small amount for each painstakingly made flower," Orr noted recently at the Bath VA. "For some it's their only income."

The poppy was proclaimed the memorial flower of the American Legion in 1920. The nationwide sale of memorial poppies began in 1921, with French widows and orphans building silk poppies. American veterans began building their own poppies in 1922