Due to potential delays from COVID-19 screening procedures at indoor gatherings, the Sault’s Royal Canadian Legion Branch 25 opted not to hold Remembrance Day ceremonies at GFL Memorial Gardens this year.
Regardless, Branch 25 reported Thursday that this year’s Poppy campaign raised over $92,000 for local veterans and their families, youth education, and community medical support.
“All funds collected (from the 2021 Poppy Campaign, which began Oct. 29 and continued to Remembrance Day, Nov. 11) are carefully used in accordance with the guidelines from both Provincial and Dominion Command,” stated Pierre Breckenridge, Royal Canadian Legion Branch 25 1st vice president and Poppy Campaign chair in an email.
“The Royal Canadian Legion Branch 25 would like to thank the citizens of Sault Ste. Marie for helping us keep the faith. We take our promises to veterans and their families seriously as do our community partners. I am humbled at the depth of generosity from the campaign volunteers, community members, businesses, organizations and of course the mayor and the City of Sault Ste. Marie,” Breckenridge wrote.
This year’s scaled down Remembrance Day ceremony was held at the Sault Ste. Marie cenotaph.
“Part of our decision was based on the screening protocol that is required to get people into the Gardens. Unfortunately we can’t control when people will arrive and with the hard start time of eleven o’clock we would have needed to start admitting people at nine o’clock in the morning to process the screening with the verification of vaccination. We didn’t think it was feasible, and the other concern we had was if veterans or other people with mobility issues were arriving later and trying to access the building, they may not have been able to get in with the process of people being lined up to be screened,” Breckenridge said during the launch of the 2021 Poppy Campaign.
Typically, Branch 25 distributes approximately 50,000 to 55,000 poppies annually.
“(We assist) homeless veterans, for example. We also provide direct support to veterans who may be experiencing a life situation, if they need help with a home, furniture, moving expenses, to widows or family members who are unable to do grass cutting or snow removal. We’ll provide funds for that in some cases if Veterans Affairs hasn’t kicked in yet. We also provide money directly to the hospital or ARCH or other organizations that require medical equipment that our veterans are able to access as well as the rest of the community, it supports the cadet programs...there’s a number of things we continue to do every year,” Breckenridge said.