Selling symbol of sacrifice (From Daily Echo)

Selling symbol of sacrifice

7:20pm Friday 6th November 2009 in News By James Maden, News and Video Reporter

THEY are the heroes behind the Royal British Legion’s annual Poppy Appeal, braving the wind, rain and cold of November.

Every year volunteers spend hour after hour shaking tins, armed with hundreds of poppies for the public to purchase. I spent a day with Legion volunteers in the front line handing out poppies in Southampton City Centre. Strapped with my poppy appeal box around my neck, my tin to shake and proudly displaying my own poppy I got to work.

At first it seemed Brian, my poppy appeal collecting mentor, was a more popular choice with members of the public. He was clad in his red beret, service medal and badges I felt a little inadequate in comparison.

Brian seemed to be a hit with the ladies too, with a number of them approaching him for a chat about the appeal and his vital role in helping support our service men and women.

However, as time went on, shoppers fled from the rain and they started coming to me, it was remarkable how many people had a reason close to their heart to support the appeal. Some had family in the armed forces. Some had friends and then there were those people who saw the poppies as a way of remembering loved ones tragically taken in conflicts gone by.

Emotion even overcame one man who had lost someone in conflict, a poignant reminder of the reason I was there. Daisy Sessions, 89, bought four remembrance crosses, symbolising her family’s military history both past and present. It was also easy to tell that recent conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan had heightened the interest of younger generations.

Teenagers and twentysomethings made their donation and took a poppy, wearing it with pride to support their friends from school and college now serving in some of the world’s most hostile places.

Doing your bit to support our boys and girls in their hour of need, is really rewarding on a personal level .