Poppy Day theme honours role of women during war

JULIA WADE

New Zealand’s longest-running charity street appeal, Poppy Day, celebrates its 99th birthday this year with the fundraiser first kicking off after WWI, in 1922.

This year’s theme, ‘Service and Sacrifice’, on April 16, was to honour the diverse roles women played in relation to the military, from those who have donned the uniform in the past, to those who still actively serve, as well as the many throughout the years who provided support to service personnel.

Since the Boer War when Kiwi troops first served overseas in 1900 – and besides having to endure long anxious waits for the safe return of their husbands, sons, fathers and brothers – women have kept the home front operating by working in agriculture, textile and food processing factories, and supported soldiers with care packages of knitted socks, tobacco, books and baking as well as stepping into war zones themselves as nurses, health workers and teachers.

Women were also the main drivers for fundraising events during war times, helping to support people in war-torn countries as well as injured soldiers and their families, with generous results. Despite the population of New Zealand being just over one million at the time, from 1914 to 1920 fundraising organisations managed to amass just shy of £5.7m, equal to $700m in current values.

The Poppy Day theme of acknowledging the crucial part women played (and still play) in war times and beyond is fitting, as the significance of the red poppy was actually driven by two women. Madame Guerin, aka The Poppy Lady from France, fundraised for French orphans, widows and veterans during WWI and created Poppy Day in 1919. American Moina Michael became so moved by Lt. Col. John McCrae’s poignant and renowned poem ‘In Flanders Fields’, she went on to establish the symbolic flower’s meaning in the US.

Red Poppies, a symbol of remembrance, hope and sacrifice, raise thousands of dollars every year in NZ to help support current and former servicewomen and men from all service backgrounds. The appeal’s success

relies heavily on hundreds of volunteers, such as locals Dawn Powell and Roxy Burnett. PHOTO/JULIA WADE