Poppy Day in York is Thursday

With the dazzling smile of Poppy Girl Nema Stracener lighting the way, this year’s annual fundraiser to benefit veterans is set for Thursday of this week from 9-noon in York.
Young miss Stracener’s mother, Jessica Geis, served in the Air Force, including a deployment to Afghanistan, and her great grandfather, Elvin Reetz, is a World War II vet.
Each year near Memorial Day, VFW and American Legion auxiliary volunteers across the country distribute millions of bright red poppies in exchange for donations to assist disabled and hospitalized veterans.
The hospitalized veterans who make the flowers are able to earn a small wage, helping supplement their incomes and making them feel more self-sufficient. The physical and mental activity provides many therapeutic benefits as well. Donations are used exclusively to assist veterans and their families.
In the World War I battlefields of Belgium, poppies grew wild amid the ravaged landscape. The overturned soil of battle enabled the poppy seeds to be covered, grow and forever memorialize the bloodshed of that war and others to come.
The poppy movement was inspired by the poem “In Flanders Fields” written in 1915.
The nine-piece poppy is never sold, but rather given in exchange for a contribution.