The first poppy handed out in Merritt

MERRITT – With Remembrance Day around the corner, the first poppy was handed out in Merritt.

“I’m very proud,” said Mo Dixon. “I’m not a veteran but I joined the Legion because my dad was a veteran”

Being a member of the Royal Canadian Legion for 47 years, Mo Dixon was honoured with being the first in Merritt to be given a poppy.

When asked why she wanted to join the Legion, Dixon said her dad and all of the fellow veterans.

“I got to meet so many of his compatriots, they are all gone now and that’s the sad part but I visit them, every year I go up to the cemetery and they are their and I have a memory of each and every one of them. Even among those days, we could see what the Legion was trying to do for the veterans and they were really fresh out within 10 years of being out of the service.”

One of the big messages of the Legion is Service, and Dixon said that is the thing she remembers most about her dad.

“I’m going back to when I was a kid I grew up in Westbank, in the Okanagan, and I think that was my first Remembrance Day ceremony at a graveyard, so its was 1950 something and all of the veterans were standing around in the circle and one man collapsed. It was the only time I seen my dad just reach out and scream and ran to him and helped. That was a memory of dad helping a fellow and that’s always stuck with me.”

Poppies are now being handed out in the community for residents to purchase by donation.

“I want everybody to know that every single cent that comes into the poppy fund, goes out from the poppy fund, it does not come to the general coffers.”

(Image credit: Zachary Stewart/Q101)