North Oakland VFW Post 334 will be selling Buddy Poppies May 7, 8 and 9 at many locations in Orion, Oxford and Addison Townships. This is the only fundraiser the Veterans of Foreign Wars carries out annually. The money raised is used to assist needy and disabled veterans in North Oakland County, as well as support the VFW National Home in Eaton Rapids, Michigan where many widows and orphans of men and women who lost their lives in the service of our country now live. The Post also supports a variety of youth activities as well as the Guardian Angel project headed by Charlotte Cito, which sends packages to service men and women from this area that are currently serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.
James Trumble, Senior Vice Commander of VFW Post 334, is the chairman of the Post’s 2009 Buddy Poppy sales effort. Carl Slomczenski, owner of CJ’s restaurant, has donated three $15.00 gift certificates out to the Post’s top three Buddy Poppy sellers.
From its inception, the Buddy Poppy Program has helped the VFW live up to its motto, ‘To honor the dead by helping the living.?
The Program actually got its start on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean shortly after World War I and was inspired by Colonel John McCrae’s poem, ‘In Flanders Field,? which spoke of poppies growing in an Allied cemetery, ‘between the crosses, row on row.? In May 1922, the VFW conducted the first nationwide distribution of poppies in the United States. Disabled veterans assemble the poppies.
North Oakland VFW Post 334 meets the second Thursday of every month in the Club Room of the K of C Hall at 1400 Orion Road in Lake Orion at 7:30 pm.
The Post was started in 1984, and members reside in Lake Orion, Oxford, Leonard, Metamora and Rochester Hills. For more information about joining the Post, veterans are encouraged to call Commander Ernie Baker at 248-391-6933.