Elderly veterans volunteer 18-hour days to keep up with poppy demand

The record demand for poppies this year has volunteers in Saskatchewan working overtime to keep up.

"The volunteers are putting in 18-hour days. And a lot of our volunteers are quite elderly," said Cherilyn Cooke. They are WW II vets themselves."

Cooke, the executive director of the Royal Canadian Legion Saskatchewan Command, spoke to host Garth Materie on CBC Radio's Blue Sky. She explained some of the volunteers are delivering poppies over huge areas of Saskatchewan.

"They are literally spending 12 hours in their cars driving around to the various communities."

They are literally spending 12 hours in their cars driving around to the various communities.- Cherilyn Cooke

So far, 19 million poppies have been distributed across Canada, which is a million more than at this time last year.

Cooke says she's never seen the demand so high. She says she's hearing from people buying poppies that Remembrance Day is particularly poignant this year because of the events in Ottawa and Quebec where two military members were killed. 

"It's been brought home to all of us that Canadian forces personnel face danger no matter where they serve and unfortunately that includes here at home."

Cooke said there is still a supply of poppies in Saskatchewan, so she doesn't think they will run out. She stated at this point, the chance of ordering more poppies is slim.

She said despite all the long hours by volunteers, the fact that so many people are wearing poppies is touching.

"It just warms our hearts and we can't thank the Canadian public enough for their support."

A poppy for every Canadian

The campaign is going so well, Bill Maxwell, the head of the national poppy campaign, said they've set a new goal to distribute 35 million poppies this year — one for each Canadian. 

The funds raised during the annual poppy campaign are held in public trust and are used only to support veterans and their families.