Mary Koenders can usually be found behind the scenes of the Royal Canadian Legion, Branch 88 poppy campaign.
For the past seven years, the 83-year-old has been helping with the campaign – first as a tagger, in front of one of the malls or businesses holding a tray of poppies.
But as the years passed on, and she found she couldn’t stand for the full two hour shift a tagger is required to commit to, she became more involved with the organizational aspect at the legion hall – bagging the poppies and organizing the trays for the taggers.
Koenders, who was born in Saskatchewan, and moved around B.C. from Parksville, Esquimalt, and Langford on Vancouver Island to Gibsons and Sechelt on the Sunshine Coast before landing in Maple Ridge, finds the volunteer work enjoyable.
For one thing it is a social activity, and gets her out in the community where she meets different people.
And, she said, the work lifts her up because the funds that are raised stay in the community to help veteran causes.
“They support the veterans. They support the guide dogs,” said Koenders, in addition to first responders, the Ridge Meadows Hospital Foundation, George Derby Centre which is located in Burnaby but houses many veterans from this community, and the Ridge Meadows Hospice Society.
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Koenders has many veterans in her family: her grandfather and two uncles helped out during the First World War and four uncles and an aunt in the Second World War.
In fact, she said, King George VI presented a distant cousin Joe with the Victoria cross. Her husband, Tim, who passed away in 2018, was an air force veteran of the Korean War.
She joined the legion herself in 1992.
There are many volunteer opportunities with the poppy campaign, said Koenders. Before the campaign, volunteers are needed to prepare the new poppies and separate them into bags of 25, 30, 50, and 100 poppies. The legion logo has to be put on the trays in addition to punching holes in them to attach a chain, if a business requests one. Everything has to be complete the last week before the campaign begins.
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This year the campaign launched on Friday, Oct. 27 – with the City of Maple Ridge Mayor Dan Ruimy officially receiving the first poppy of the campaign on Wednesday, Oct. 25, and City of Pitt Meadows Mayor Nicole MacDonald receiving hers on Thursday, Oct. 26.
Work for the 2024 campaign, noted Koenders, will actually begin Sunday, Nov. 12 – the day following Remembrance Day – when trays are picked up from businesses, all the wreaths go back into storage, along with the trays, boxes and poppies. Volunteers have to count and bag all the loose poppies so organizers know how many to order for 2024. And all the money has to be counted. By August new supplies will be ordered.
Koenders is not worried the younger generations will forget the sacrifices made by veterans in past wars. Every year she is impressed by how well this community gets behind the campaign.
To become involved in the poppy campaign or to sign up for a two hour tagging shift, go to Branch 88, located at 12101 224 Street in Maple Ridge.
For more information call 604-463-5101.