Letter: Simsbury VFW Commander Thanks The Community

Dear Editor,

On behalf of the Metacomet Post 1926, Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States, Simsbury, CT, I would like to thank all the residents of the Farmington Valley who donated to our Veterans Day Buddy Poppy Drive early in November.

We also thank Fitzgerald’s Food Store for providing space outside the store for our table.

The monies raised during this particular drive will be distributed to local and national organizations that serve veterans such as: The Sgt. Feliz DelGreco Memorial Scholarship; the POW/MIA National Memorial and Museum, Jacksonville, Fla., and VFW VMS Program (Veterans & Military Support) Kansas City, Kan.

In addition, wreaths will be donated to Wreaths Across America for the Dec. 17, 2022 ceremony at Simsbury Center Cemetery.

Veterans Day, formerly known as Armistice Day, was founded in honor of the signing of the agreement to end the fighting along the western front during WWI. The signing of the agreement occurred in Paris on November 11, 1918 at 11 a.m.

We also thank the community and elected officials who attended the Annual Simsbury Veterans Day ceremony on November 11!

The kind words of thanks and stories told by many residents while they visited with the veterans outside Fitzgerald’s Foods are also greatly appreciated.

We heard about grandfathers, fathers, wives, sons and daughters who served in World War I, World War II, Korea, Vietnam, the Gulf War, Iraq and Afghanistan; and about family members who are currently serving all over the world. The familiar red Buddy Poppy, normally worn in the lapel, is a symbol from World War I. It was memorialized in a poem written in 1915 by John McCrae about the poppies growing in a military cemetery near Flanders Field, Belgium, where, in 1914, American soldiers had engaged in battle. The Veterans of Foreign Wars conducted its first Buddy Poppy distribution before Memorial Day in 1922, becoming the first veterans' organization to organize a nationwide distribution. The Buddy Poppy soon was adopted as the official memorial flower of the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States.
We also thank everyone who visited with us at our POW/MIA table outside Tractor Supply in Simsbury during National POW/MIA weekend in September.

That weekend honors the commitments and sacrifices made by our nation’s prisoners of war and those who are still missing in action.

By custom, it is recognized the third weekend in September.

The Veterans of Foreign Wars organization is devoted to achieving the fullest possible accounting of all missing American military service members from all wars.

In recent years several government and non-government agencies, working together and using DNA, have been successful in identifying remains as old as from WWII to present day.

The flying of the POW/MIA flag serves as a symbol of the nation’s concern to this continued cause.

The Simsbury VFW is proud to remember those comrades by sharing information about this commemoration with the public.

As always, we thank you the greater Farmington Valley community for your support and look forward to continuing our mission of service to all veterans and their families.

Sincerely,
Lee M. Wilson, commander, Metacomet VFW Post 1926, Simsbury