Every Poppy Counts

Like so many things this year, the Poppy Appeal has had to adapt to the threat of Covid-19. We’re calling on the public to support us like never before, because Every Poppy Counts.

With some people unable to leave their homes as they normally would to find a poppy, and with many of the charity’s collectors unable to carry out face to face collections, we’ve unveiled a range of new ways for people to show their support remotely.

From donating for poppies through the post for your neighbours and local community, displaying a poppy in your window, donating online or undertaking a virtual Poppy run, there are many ways to support the Poppy Appeal from home in line with Covid-19 restrictions.

 

During the First World War previously beautiful countryside was blasted, bombed and fought over, again and again. The landscape swiftly turned to fields of mud: bleak and barren where little or nothing could grow.

But out of this devastation the delicate but resilient bright red Flanders poppies grew and flourished in their thousands.

Shortly after losing a friend in Ypres in 1915, a Canadian doctor, Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae was inspired by the sight of poppies growing in battle-scarred fields to write his now famous poem

‘In Flanders Fields’

The poem inspired American War Secretary, Moina Michael, who bought poppies to sell to her friends to raise money for Servicemen in need after the First World War.

This was adopted by The (Royal) British Legion in 1921 who ordered 9 million of these poppies and sold them on 11 November that year in the first ever Poppy Appeal.

The poppy has been adopted as a symbol of Remembrance ever since.