Dubois County VFW Buddy Poppy drive honors veterans May 2-9

Red Buddy Poppies were back in Dubois County as VFW Post 673’s annual donation drive ran from Saturday, May 2, through Saturday, May 9, linking Jasper residents to a veterans’ tradition that dates to 1922. The drive is more than a routine fundraiser. For the VFW, the poppy remains a symbol of remembrance and a practical way to support veterans at the same time.

The Veterans of Foreign Wars says its first nationwide poppy distribution happened before Memorial Day in 1922, making it the first veterans organization to organize a nationwide distribution. That effort soon led to the poppy being adopted as the official memorial flower of the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States. The VFW also says the program later expanded so Buddy Poppies were assembled by disabled and needy veterans, giving the flower a direct connection to veteran employment and support as well as remembrance.

That history still shapes the drive today. The VFW Auxiliary says the Buddy Poppy program remains one of its ways to honor veterans, service members and their families, placing the campaign within a broader network of service rather than treating it as a stand-alone collection drive. In Dubois County, that makes Post 673’s effort part of a familiar civic rhythm tied to Jasper and the county’s Memorial Day season.

The timing also gives the campaign added weight. As May moves toward Memorial Day observances later in the month, the red poppy stands out as a visible reminder of military service and sacrifice. For local veterans’ groups, the donations gathered during the May 2-9 drive help sustain the work that keeps those traditions alive in the community.

In Dubois County, the Buddy Poppy has endured because it does two things at once: it remembers the dead and helps the living. More than a century after the first nationwide distribution, that blend of symbolism and support still gives the VFW’s red flower a lasting place in local civic life.