Local veteran receives first poppy of 2024 Poppy campaign

By
Sandy Lindsay
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Royal Canadian Legion Branch of Port Elgin honoured retired Branch Padre, Chuck Beaton, with the first poppy of the 2024 Legion Poppy Campaign.

For the two weeks leading up to Remembrance Day on November 11th, the Royal Canadian Legion’s Poppy Campaign begins today, October 25th.

(L) Legion Branch 340 Secretary Norma Dudgeon, Padre (ret’d) Rev. Charles (Chuck) Beaton and Legion Exec. member Rhonda Harrison – for larger view, Click on Image
Retired from Canada’s Navy Reserve, Beaton served as Branch Padre (chaplain) for several years and, for more than 50 years as a Minister in the United Church. Beaton was ordained on June 7, 1962 in Edmonton but served most of his time as a minister in Ontario and retired from the United Church in Southampton.

While the Poppy Campaign is the foundation of the Legion’s Remembrance Program that ensures Veterans and their families are cared for and treated with the respect that they deserve, it goes much farther than that. The Poppy Trust Fund also directly supports many initiatives:

  • Programs and assistance for Veterans and serving military and RCMP in need and their families
  • Housing and care facilities for the elderly, disabled and homeless Veterans
  • Bursaries for children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren of Veterans
  • Veterans’ drop-in centres and Meals on Wheels programs
  • Sponsorship of cadet and youth programs
  • Service Dogs for Veterans with PTSD
  • Provide funding for local hospital medical equipment

This year, a mail-out has gone to 4200 Port Elgin residents with a self-addressed envelope for donations.  The envelope can be dropped off at Legion Branch 340 on Green Street from 3:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m. or the Port Elgin Post Office beginning today to Friday November 10th, but if placed in the mail, will require postage.

For those who are out and about, there will be Legion volunteers at various locations in the community and, again this year, there will be a limited number of electronic TAP/PAY boxes for ease of debit/credit card donations.

“If anyone can spare two hours to volunteer,” says Rhonda Harrison, “we would certainly welcome their support.”  Anyone who can help, contact Harrison at bnrshow@eastlink.ca or drop into the branch on Green Street.
“We thank all our fellow citizens who give to the Poppy Trust so that we can continue to give back to the community,” says President Robert (B0b) Harrison, “all while remembering the Fallen whose legacy we know as … Freedom.”
Always a moving time, Remembrance Day seems to become more emotional as time marches on and the veterans of the past become fewer.

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