Poppy campaign set to launch with COVID-19 protocols
Starts Oct. 30 with 17 Niagara legion branches
Niagara’s Royal Canadian Legion branches aren’t letting a pandemic get in the way of the poppy campaign to honour Canada’s veterans.
The campaign leading up to Remembrance Day will be a little different this year, with COVID-19, but volunteers will still be out selling poppies with safety in mind.
“It’s going to be a whole different campaign, that’s for sure, but so is everything else right now in our lives,” said Lloyd Cull, zone commander for Niagara region, which has 17 branches.
“We’ll get around it somehow.”
Cull, a member of the poppy committee for Branch 24 in St. Catharines, said legion branches across Niagara will be putting out tables at larger locations like Walmart and Real Canadian Superstore to offer a touchless process.
They’ll spread out poppies on the table. People coming up can put their donation in a box, pick up a poppy and be on their way.
But whether citizens are carrying cash to pay for poppies — when cashless card payments are being encouraged during the pandemic by many retailers — isn’t yet known.
Cull said Royal Canadian Legion’s Ontario Command is experimenting with tap debit machines this year in Ottawa and Toronto, with an expansion to other legions next year.
He said the technology will be
a welcome addition to the local campaign when it is available.
“There are an awful lot of people who don’t carry that much
money anymore,” he said, explaining sometimes people
without cash will get money from a cashier on the way out of a store to buy a poppy.
“In the past few years I’ve noticed myself, people will go through the till and put money in and pay. This year, who knows? Most of us are using the tap, so we’ll have to wait and see.”
The legions don’t set annual financial targets for poppy sales, which support veterans and their families, communities and remembrance.
Cull said the more money they collect, the more they are able to distribute to organizations such as hospitals and hospices.
“Whatever we get, we get. If we have a bad year, it just means less going to the different organizations.”
Cull said last year, Branch 24 alone raised more than $50,000 for the poppy campaign and donated nearly $40,000 back into the community.
Poppies are being delivered to retailers and other locations starting Oct. 30, the official start of the national campaign..
Cull said legion volunteers will be screened before they go out in public. When they come to the legion to pick up their boxes for the day, they’ll have to sign in and have their temperature taken. They’ll also have hand sanitizer at the table they are manning and will be wearing masks.
In areas where they won’t have tables, like at the farmers market in downtown St. Catharines, volunteers may wear a glove when handling the poppies that will be carried in a box around their neck.
Poppy boxes will also be located on counters at businesses as usual, such as Tim Hortons.
Cull said volunteer numbers are down somewhat because of COVID-19 but aren’t too bad. He said some people are more comfortable going out than others. They are asking members if they are available, but if not, they understand.
Poppy volunteers will also be selling pins and bracelets, but don’t expect all of them to be stocked with the hot-selling legion face masks.
Cull said the branch has gone through about 100 already and there’s a back order. The $10 masks have been disappearing quickly across the province, and he said they’ve had a hard time getting them in.
“The masks have been a hit,” he said. “A lot of people want to wear them, which is great.”