With four days remaining before Remembrance Day, the Royal Canadian Legion says poppies are in higher demand than has been seen for several years.
Across Canada, 19 million poppies have already been distributed – one million more than were handed out in all of 2013.
Figures provided by Google Canada also show that searches for Remembrance Day poppies are rising above their usual November levels.
Locally, poppy campaign officials estimate at least a 25 per cent increase in poppy demand.
“Our regular customers are taking more countertop boxes than they ever have before,” says Bill Babcock, chair of the poppy program at Waterloo’s Royal Canadian Legion Branch 530 – which has also welcomed more than 1,500 children into its hall this year to educate them about the significance of Nov. 11.
At Kitchener’s Legion Branch 50, poppy campaign chair Terry Rahn says he’s already had to order more poppies than he initially planned to.
“It’s been overwhelming, really,” he says.
“It’s been fun, but it’s been busy.”
Poppy purchasers have also been more generous this year.
Rahn says he’s receiving larger donations for poppies, on average. In one case, a man even handed him $10 without wanting a poppy in return.
Money raised from poppy sales goes toward emergency assistance programs for veterans and veterans’ widows.
The increase in donations to poppy funds comes weeks after the high-profile deaths of two Canadian soldiers within the country’s borders.
Warrant Officer Patrice Vincent was killed Oct. 20 when a man drove a car into him in the parking lot of a federal building near Montreal. Another soldier was injured in the same incident.
Two days later, Cpl. Nathan Cirillo of Hamilton was shot and killed while standing guard at the National War Memorial in Ottawa.
With files from CTVNews.ca
