Posted on: Friday, May 17, 2002

War on terror revitalizes Poppy Days

By Walter Wright
Advertiser Staff Writer

Wendy Murrain, left, and Ella Napeahi of the American Legion Auxiliary make a lei for Memorial Day services. Eugene Tanner • The Honolulu Advertiser

You will see fewer American Legion Auxiliary ladies offering the blood-red paper blossoms for Poppy Days, Thurday through May 25.

But the women, numbers reduced by age, illness and death, are hoping that a new surge of patriotism will increase the donations they receive to help American military veterans.

The Vietnam War was still under way when Elizabeth Lee joined the auxiliary 33 years ago, "and people were more patriotic," Lee remembers.

"There were more of us at the tables, and when you worked together as a team, you didn't get rebuffed too frequently," she said.

"But as the years went by, patriotism fell out of favor, and it got harder and harder. More people turned you away."

The auxiliary's membership in Hawaii plunged from about 1,500 to about 500 over the years, partly because "we had a hard time attracting members because our organization no longer appealed" with its red-white-and-true-blue message.

Last year, Hawaii Poppy Chairman Wendy Murrain said, the auxiliary collected a scant $791, far less than the expected $1 donation for each of the 1,400 poppies distributed. More than half of that was raised by an 87-year-old member on Maui and her helpers.

It's getting harder to find members to man the tables and street corners, said Murrain, at 47 the youngest auxiliary member here. The auxiliary lost a 107-year-old member recently, leaving a 95-year-old as the most senior, and an average membership age in the late 60s.

As a result, Murrain said, the auxiliary is asking organizations for direct donations, at its Waikiki headquarters at 612 McCully St., Honolulu, HI 96826.

That effort has begun to pay off. The Hawaiian Civic Clubs gave $100, and one large company here made a $900 donation and will distribute poppies to all of its employees.

Each of the crepe paper poppies is handcrafted by a veteran. They recall the poppies that grew wild on World War I battlefields in Belgium.

A Canadian Army physician, Lt. Col. John McCrae, caught their image famously in a poem which began, "In Flanders fields the poppies blow, between the crosses row on row...."

Elizabeth Lee hopes the patriotism that caused the auxiliary to adopt the poppy as its emblem in 1921 is returning today, after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, and in the midst of a new war, on terrorism.

"If we had had a poppy distribution within two or three months of Sept. 11, we all could have retired," she said with a smile.

"We are hoping those feelings are still there."

The money is one thing, Lee said, and it would be good to have more to help at the Veterans Center for Aging at Tripler Army Medical Center here.

But money or not, "the important thing is we are out there, as few as we are," she said, "showing the public we still care about veterans."

Reach Walter Wright at wwright@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8054.