CONRAD — The Conrad American Legion Auxiliary Post #681 will kick off its annual Poppy Campaign on May 1. The campaign will be conducted throughout May with post members distributing poppies door-to-door and with poppies available in several Conrad businesses, leading up to Memorial Day.

The American Legion Auxiliary adopted the poppy as its memorial flower in 1921 following World War I, making the poppy a symbol of freedom and the blood sacrificed by troops in wartime. The use of the poppy comes from the poem “In Flanders Fields” which refers to the poppies that sprang up over the newly dug soldiers’ graves in parts of Belgium and France. The poem was written by Lt. Col. John McCrae in 1915.

Shortly after the poem was published, a teacher from Georgia named Moina Michaels began the tradition of wearing the poppy in remembrance of war dead. The poppies distributed by the Conrad chapter were made by veterans and all proceeds from the poppy distribution are used to help fund programs that benefit veterans.