Answering the call again

A group of Port Washington area veterans gathered recently to continue their service to others — this time by creating crepe paper poppies.

The eight vets worked steadily under the direction of trainer Joanie Dickerson, creating the poppies that will be given to American Legion Auxiliaries to distribute.

“This is something I can do, be helpful,” Air Force veteran Jim Schmidt said. “And it’s for a good cause. I can’t run any races but I can sit on a chair and do this.”

Air Force veteran Jerry Wiskow said, “One of the tenets of the Legion is to continue to serve. This is a way to do that.

“I’ve helped sell them on occasion. I always bought one for my cap. I figure this is something I can handle.”

The training session was organized by Port Washington Legion Auxiliary President Diane Burkhalter, who said she was shocked last November to hear that there were only eight veterans in Wisconsin making poppies. 

That’s important, she said, because in Wisconsin the only poppies that can be distributed by the Auxiliary are those made by veterans.

And there were so few veterans in the state making them that some Auxiliaries couldn’t get as many poppies to distribute as they wanted, Burkhalter said.

“I was like, ‘Oh my heavens, each of these people are making thousands of poppies a year,’” she said. “What happens if one or two can’t make them any more?

“It really became an urgency.”

When she discussed the idea of a poppy-making class with members of the Van Ells-Schanen American Legion Post 82 in Port, Burkhalter said, “They were quite receptive.” 

She said she was pleased with the turnout, noting, “We have about 15 other members who, if the day would have been different, would have been there.”

Sue Hembrook, head of the Poppy Shop at the Milwaukee County War Memorial, said the eight veterans who supplied the state with poppies last year made about 400,000 poppies. 

In addition to supplying about 350,000 of the flowers to Legion Auxiliaries around the state, the Poppy Shop also sells them to units in other states, she said, noting Wisconsin supplies all the poppies distributed in Alaska, as well as areas in Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Michigan and Texas.

“It’s a big deal,” Hembrook said. 

For a long time, she said, veterans at the Zablocki Center in Milwaukee made the poppies, but in recent years their numbers have fallen off for a number of reasons as veterans age.

It was a program, she said, that helped give those veterans a sense of purpose.

“Now they feel they can do something to benefit their brothers in arms, and those that didn’t come back,” she said.

In the last couple months, Hembrook said, about 15 veterans around the state have stepped up to help.

The poppies play a vital role for the Legion and its members, Dickerson said, noting that in Wisconsin 80% of the money collected for the poppies stay with the local Auxiliaries and must be used to directly support veterans.

The remaining 20%, she said, goes to the state headquarters to support programs for veterans and their children. 

In Wisconsin, the state Legion Auxiliary headquarters buys kits to make poppies and provides them to poppy makers. Each kit makes 1,000 poppies, and the makers are paid 10 cents per poppy.

Making poppies isn’t difficult, Dickerson, who is past president of the state Legion Auxiliary, said.

“It takes a little bit of manual dexterity,” she said. “For men, it takes a little bit of time to get the hand control because their hands are larger.”

Novice poppy makers are asked to submit a bunch of 25 poppies to ensure the quality is there before they are accepted into the program. 

“They’re all going to pass,” Burkhalter said of the Port group. “They did such a phenomenal job.”

Dickerson said she can make a bundle of 25 flowers in about 30 minutes — “I’m not a speedy poppy maker,” she said — even small numbers add up.

Wiskow said it took him about three hours to make his first 25 poppies. He took a pack home and in the week after the July 25 training session, he had made five more poppies.

“And they were presentable,” Wiskow said. “For someone who’s 80 years old, it’s kind of difficult to get the fingers to cooperate.

“I’ve always done things with my hands. And now, my wife can do her knitting and crocheting and watch TV and I have something to do at the same time.”

Burkhalter said she plans to ask some of the new poppy makers to bring their kits to Legion meetings and demonstrate the craft to other members in the hopes of recruiting more makers.

“We want to show them how easy it is,” she said. 

“I don’t think we ever want to get to the point again where we say there are only eight poppy makers and they’re all in their 80s.”