More than $40,000 has been raised this year for the Royal Canadian Legion Branch 88 poppy campaign, including about $800 during a pub crawl over the weekend.
Piper Trevor Caldwell, along with veteran John Yoxall, and two taggers visited five pubs Saturday evening, Nov. 5, raising a total of $861.75 for the campaign.
As Caldwell played the bagpipes, the canvassers walked through the pubs offering poppies and collecting donations. They also reminded patrons about the Remembrance Day ceremonies taking place in Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows on Friday, Nov. 11.
“We used to do those quite a few years back and they were very successful for raising money for the poppy campaign. We are also trying to resurrect the Legion 88 Pipe Band and this was a good way for the pipers to get out in the community and help support our efforts,” explained Lesley Nantel with the local legion branch.
Yoxall, 62, served in the British Army for many years, explained Nantel, and is a member of the legion executive.
“He served for 12 years as a Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineer for the British Army,” she explained.
The group visited five pubs. They started at the Jolly Coachman, then to the Fox’s Reach, Billy Minor, Kingfisher, Black Sheep, before finishing the crawl at the legion.
“And at the Kingfisher, one of the waitresses is actually a highland dancer and danced in front of a full house while the piper played,” added Nantel.
Currently the campaign is sitting at $41,870.20, just shy of where the campaign was at the same time last year, said poppy campaign chair, Sherry Boudreau.
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However, she noted, that they still have to count all the donations from schools in the district and from local businesses.
Boudreau expects to come close to last years total of $84,529.73, although she is still hoping to surpass her goal of $90,000.
Locally money raised goes to support veterans and also the local charities within communities that have a legion branch.
Close to $20 million is donated during the National Poppy Campaign each year.
Nantel and Boudreau are hoping to be able to hold a pub crawl again next year again.
On Nov. 11 in Maple Ridge, the Remembrance Day parade will start from the legion at the corner of 224 Street and Brown Avenue at 10:30 a.m. and make its way to the cenotaph in Memorial Peace Park where the ceremony is to take place.
In Pitt Meadows the ceremony will also start at 10:30 a.m. at the cenotaph in Spirit Square, 11985 Harris Rd..
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