Local poppy campaign underway to fundraise for veterans supports

“In this day and age a dollar is more important than people think. It really is because everything is going up. Everything costs more and people have the same needs or more needs,” notes Mike Keetch, a local legion member, and veteran. “So I kind of get a little shiver every time I’m standing there and somebody is putting something in the box.”

Donations are used to pay for support programs and services for veterans, and the campaign is also an education tool to engage people.

“I think anybody that contributes to it and wears a poppy understands the meaning of Remembrance, and what it means to veterans,” says Kamloops Legion President, Mike Young.

Keetch is among local legion members who help out with the poppies at this time of year. It comes after he joined the army in 1961.

“After I got out of basic training in 1962, early on the first thing that happened was the Cuban missile crisis – because we were being posted to Germany, and that got delayed because of the Cuban missile crisis.” he recalls. “I spent two years in Germany. I was there when President Kennedy was assassinated. That put us on emergency standby. And when that happens with the military in those days you slept in your uniform because you never knew what was going to happen.”

By the late 1960’s, Keetch was stationed in Rafah in the southern Gaza strip.

“We were there for a year and there was a lot of stuff going on. And when I left, I left in February of ’67, and in June the six-day war happened,” he explains.

Keetch travelled around Canada after that, describing his military service career as less eventful than it started out. He was eventually sent to work at the armed forces display at the CNE, which is where he met his wife of 58 years. Keetch can attest to the after-effects of service in conflict, and seeks out more of a quiet reflection on Remembrance Day.

“It brings back a lot of things that when I was in Egypt, we lost six people, and I was on six funerals when I was over there. That kind of stuff comes back to me,” Keetch said. “So I don’t go [to the park ceremony] anymore. I go quietly on my own up to the Battle Street cenotaph.”

Making the poppy campaign’s purpose all the more impactful.

“Every legion has a service officer, in our case we have three. Somebody is always doing something. If we get a family member or a veteran who is down on their luck and doesn’t have a place to live or anything, we’ll look after that. If they don’t have money for food, we’ll look after that and get them set up again,” adds Keetch.

“There’s a number of things like that as well as the outreach programs for people nowadays, a lot of PTSD and things like that go on.”

From now until Remembrance Day, donation tables are out, and the main poppy office is set up in Kamloops Square on Seymour Street.

“So anybody that wants to come in and pick up a wreath for Remembrance Day can come in and see Val,” added Young.

by Dylana Kneeshaw

Local poppy campaign underway to fundraise for veterans supports

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