We Honor the Dead . . . by Helping the Living
BUDDY POPPY SALES HELP VETS !

For those who have served the United States honorably in military service, a small red flower - the Buddy Poppy - can mean a lot.

As they will do 10 times this year from Jan. 11 through Dec. 11, members from Veterans Of Foreign Wars Post 914 Intrepid in West Mifflin provide food, refreshments and fun for patients in local VA medical centers. A recent visit Tuesday, May 6 was no exception as scores of patients were treated to pizza, cookies, milk, soda and bingo at the Southwestern Veterans Center on Highland Drive in Pittsburgh.

Patients enjoyed playing the game 'Good Neighbor'. Not only did each bingo game winner receive a small cash reward, but those on either side of the lucky player also got half the prize amount. The added windfall helps patients to purchase small luxury items at the hospital that might not otherwise be available to them.

(From left to right)
Post surgeon Russ Emery, adjutant Joe Coccaro and trustee Henry Lutz from Intrepid Post 914 in West Mifflin help ready refreshments for a bingo at the Southwestern  Veterans Center on Highland Drive, Pittsburgh
Patients enjoyed playing the game 'Good Neighbor'. Not only did each bingo game winner receive a small cash reward, but those on either side of the lucky player also got half the prize amount. The added windfall helps patients to purchase small luxury items at the hospital that might not otherwise be available to them.

Veterans Of Foreign Wars Post 914 Intrepid budgets nearly $1,500 each year to directly support the local VA patients through its visitation program. Other benevolent works include purchasing food certificates for the widows of local veterans, buying telephone cards so those serving in Iraq and Afghanistan can call their loved ones, and financing scholarship and academic prizes for West Mifflin students.

To raise the money for these worthy efforts, V.F.W. Intrepid will be selling Buddy Poppies at various retail establishments in West Mifflin during the Memorial Day weekend. Those solid citizens who rallied around our troops during Operation Iraqi Freedom can help show their support for area soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines who proudly honored our nation's uniforms by purchasing poppies.

The West Mifflin post is equally proud to be associated with this tradition of fund raising. Among all the flowers that evoke the memories and emotions of war is the red poppy, which became associated with war after the publication of a poem written by Col. John McCrae of Canada. The poem, "In Flander's Field," describes blowing red fields among the battleground of the fallen.

 

 

 

Dan Cunningham, V.F.W. Post 914 West Mifflin Officer Of The Day, offers pizza to patients at the Southwestern Veterans Center.

The V.F.W. was the first veterans' organization to adopt the poppy and develop a national distribution campaign. For more than 75 years, the V.F.W.'s Buddy Poppy program has raised millions of dollars in support of veterans' welfare and the well being of their dependents. From the very beginning, the Buddy Poppy has received the support of the Veterans Administration and the endorsement and cooperation of all presidents since Warren G. Harding.

Today, V.F.W. Buddy Poppies are assembled by disabled, needy and aging veterans in VA Hospitals and domiciliaries across the country and are sold at V.F.W. Posts and their Ladies Auxiliaries. The minimal cost of Buddy Poppies to V.F.W. units provides compensation to the veterans who assemble the poppies, provides financial assistance in maintaining state and national veterans' rehabilitation and service programs and partially supports the V.F.W. National Home for orphans and widows of our nation's veterans.

 

Veterans Of Foreign Wars Post 914 Quartermaster Michael P. Mauer  prepares to call a bingo game.

 
The V.F.W. assists all veterans and their families to obtain veterans'  entitlements and other services. In addition, the organization works for the well being of those serving on active duty, in the National Guard and the Reserves.

The V.F.W. was founded in 1899. There are 2.7 million members of the VFW and its Ladies Auxiliary located in approximately 9,500 Posts worldwide.  Locally, the members of Post 914 regularly visit those in Veterans' Administration Hospitals, provide veterans' affairs outreach to schools and participate in ceremonial events honoring veterans and their families. Other noted accomplishments of the V.F.W include lobbying for a GI bill for the 20th century; donating more than $1 million each to the Vietnam, Korean, Women in the Service and World War II memorials; fighting for compensation to veterans diagnosed with Gulf War Syndrome; and improving VA medical centers services for women veterans. From providing $2.5 million in college scholarships to high school students every year to encouraging elevation of the Veterans Administration to the president's cabinet, the V.F.W. is there--honoring the dead by helping the living.