GAYLORD -- Members of the Ralph Holewinski VFW Post 1518 will be at local stores seeking donations for a Buddy Poppy this week.

Funds raised from the poppy sale go to the post's Veterans Relief Fund, which assists veterans in meeting pressing financial needs.

Members of the VFW Post 1518 and the group's auxiliary will be at Walmart and Family Fare from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. on Wednesday, July 3 and Friday, July 5. They will also be at Menard's from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. on Friday and Saturday and at the Gaylord Farmers Market from 10 a.m. until 1 p.m. on Saturday. Any donation for a Buddy Poppy is welcomed.

Last year, the post distributed $12,000 from the relief fund to help veterans. This year the post has a goal of $15,000 for the program.

The Buddy Poppy symbolizes a vivid red flower that has become synonymous with great loss of life in France during World War I. Flanders Fields was a World War I battlefield straddling the Belgian provinces of East and West Flanders.

The war-torn area was popularized by a poem "In Flanders Field" by Canadian Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, who was inspired by his own service on the battlefields in WWI. Today, Flanders Fields is home to tens of thousands of poppies. Selling replicas of the original Flanders' red poppy, after WWI, was a way to provide relief for the people of war-devastated France.

In May 1922, the VFW adopted the poppy as the official memorial flower for the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States. In 1924, the VFW registered the name "Buddy Poppy" with the U.S. Patent Office. The term "Buddy" was coined by the poppy makers, who, at the time, were disabled veterans. It was a tribute to the veterans who did not come home and those disabled or scarred for life.

-- Contact Paul Welitzkin at [email protected].