What is Poppy Day?

Poppy Days are the American Legion Auxiliary's biggest fundraiser to enrich our Poppy Funds in order to directly serve veterans, active duty military and their immediate families. We could not make such an impact without your support!!

The Auxiliary Unit 1941 has donated Poppy Funds to the following:

• 15 VA hospitals, outpatient & residential facilities throughout Illinois

• Friends of Fisher House

• ALA Six Point Programs including Christmas Gift Shop & Easter gifts

• Canine Companions for Independence

• Department & Post 1941 Gifts to the Yanks program

• Volunteers of America - Hope Manor Housing for Veterans

• Homes for Our Troops

• Chicago Veterans

• Greater Chicago Food Depository - providing food for pantries at Hines & Jesse Brown facilities

• Honor Flight for Women

• K-9 Service Dogs for Veterans

• Soldier’s Angels

• Caring Patriot’s 

• Canine Companions

• Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society

• American Legion Child Welfare Program

• BraveHearts Therapeutic Riding Center Veterans Therapy Programs

• Well being items for hospitalized veterans at Hines VA

• Blankets were made & distributed to children of homeless veterans

The Poppy Story

The Poppy Story from the battlefields of World War I, weary soldiers brought home the memory of a barren landscape transformed by wild poppies, red as the blood that had soaked the soil.  By that miracle of nature, the spirit of their lost comrades lived on.

The poppy became a symbol of the sacrifice of lives in war & represented the hope that none had died in vain.  The American Legion Auxiliary poppy has continued to bloom for the casualties of four wars, its petals of paper bound together for veterans, reminding America each year that the men & women who have served & died for their country deserve to be remembered.

The poppy, as a memorial flower to the war dead can be traced to a single individual, Moina Michael.  She was so moved by Lt. Col. McCrae’s poem, “In Flanders’ Fields,” that she wrote a response:

. . . the blood of heroes never dies

But lends a luster to the red

Of the flower that blooms above the dead

In Flanders’ Fields

On impulse, she bought a bouquet of poppies - all that New York City’s Wanamaker’s Department Store had and handed them to businessmen meeting at the New York YMCA where she worked.  She asked them to wear the poppy as a tribute to the fallen.  That was November 1918.  World War I was over, but America’s sons would rest forever “in Flanders’ Fields.”  Later she would spearhead a campaign that would result in the adoption of the poppy as the national symbol of sacrifice.