Civil War, which remains to this day the war in which the greatest number of Americans lost their lives. day of remembrance for those who have died in military service. A Mighty Girl wishes a happy Memorial Day to our U.S. Red poppies are still sold in these nations and worn on Remembrance/Veterans Day or Memorial Day to raise funds for veterans' organizations and honor those who have served. The legacy of Moina Michael, who became widely known as the Poppy Lady by the time of her death in 1944, lives on today. The symbol was adopted soon after by veterans' groups in the UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. As a result of her efforts, the American Legion Auxiliary adopted the red poppy as a symbol of remembrance for war veterans. After seeing that many were in need of financial and occupational assistance, she realized that the sale of the silk poppies could be used to raise funds to help injured and disabled veterans.

The first British Legion Poppy Day appeal began. Shortly thereafter with the end of the war, Michael returned to Georgia and began teaching a class of disabled serviceman. The idea of a Remembrance Poppy, sold as a way to generate funds for veterans, was quickly embraced by Haig with the support of The British Legion. This marked the first sale of the Flanders Fields Memorial Poppy and launched Michael on a mission to have the US adopt the red poppy as a national memorial symbol. Whilst the red poppy is a symbol of modern times, legend has it that the poppy goes back to the time of the Mogul leader, Genghis Khan, as the flower. That same day, she purchased 25 red silk poppies at a local department store with the support of delegates at the Twenty-fifth Conference of the Overseas YMCA War Secretaries. On November 9, 1918, Michael was on leave from her job as a professor at the University of Georgia and volunteering for the YMCA Overseas War Secretaries' headquarters in New York City when she first encountered John McCrae’s battlefield poem “In Flanders Fields.” In the Canadian soldier’s famous poem, he writes about the red poppies growing on the battlefield: “In Flanders fields the poppies blow / Between the crosses, row on row.” Michael later described that she felt she was being called in person by the voices which have been silenced in death and immediately made a pledge to “keep the faith.” She penned a response “We Shall Keep The Faith,” in which she wrote “the Torch and Poppy Red / We wear in honor of our dead” and vowed to wear a red poppy on her heart as a symbol of remembrance who those who served in the war. Moina Michael, an American professor and humanitarian who devoted her life to ensuring that war veterans were remembered, established the memorial poppy leading to her nickname, the Poppy Lady. A Mighty Girl - The red poppy is famous in many countries as a symbol of remembrance to commemorate those who have died in war but few people know the story of the woman who first gave the poppy this significance.

The story of the remembrance poppy