The Milton Legion Branch has provided an update on its annual poppy campaign.
The poppy campaign is held every year ahead of Remembrance Day, with 2020 being the most unique year yet due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Poppy Chair, Bob Elliot, says they did better than they had originally expected.
That number will likely continue rising as the year progresses as the poppy campaign technically runs until September 30th. After that date, it will officially move on to the next year’s campaign.
Elliot admits that there has been a slight decline over the years, with 2019 being lower than the year previous. He believes a big contributor to this drop is the fact that residents don’t carry as much change any more. That issue has only increased with the pandemic.
Elliot says the positive numbers for 2020 and moving forward are thanks to hard work and some creativity.
The poppy masks took Milton by storm in early-November. Designer Aisha Ismail began making face masks for her local small business ‘My Ideentity’ due to the pandemic. At the time, Remembrance Day was approaching and they came upon the idea of making poppy face masks. It blew up from there. You can read the story by myFM News on Ismail and her business here.
Due to various rules and regulations, the Milton Legion Branch is not able to accept credit or debit, and are unable to use fundraising sites such as GoFundMe. Elliot says that there are plans for Legion branches to make more modern changes, but Milton is not included in those plans, as of yet. He adds that they’ll wait and see for the next poppy campaign.
With the current provincial shutdown, the Milton Legion is closed. Elliot thanks the Milton community for supporting the branch as they are in a better spot financially than other community branches. That’s because Milton residents were kind enough to support the Legion over the last few months while its doors were open to the public.
Elliot projects that 2021 is still up in the air for the Legion. He’s running on the idea that the shutdown will last longer than the current 28-days that is expected. That may force them to dip into their reserves eventually.
The Royal Canadian Legion Branch 136 is located at 21 Charles Street in Milton.
