Yet today, she is one of UGA’s hidden treasures. postage stamp in 1948 - a red 3-cent stamp with her image, name and the title “Founder of Memorial Poppy.” In 2016, nearly 3.5 million American Legion Auxiliary poppies were distributed, raising $2.1 million for American veterans. The funds support recovery centers, dementia care, medical expenses and even household repairs for veterans. There, the British Royal Legion distributes about 45 million remembrance poppies and raises about $64 million annually to assist retired or injured soldiers. In the United Kingdom, many don a red poppy on Remembrance Day - a holiday similar to Veterans Day, which also is observed on Nov. Remembrance poppies have been worn in the U.K., Australia and Canada since 1921 and since 1922 in New Zealand. But they could make these little poppies,” said Tom Michael, who has donated historic materials about his great aunt Moina to UGA’s Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library.
“The soldiers who made the poppies for sale in America were classified as unfit for any employment by the government because of their war injuries. The American Legion designated the red poppy as its official flower in 1920, and distribution of poppies became a Legion national program in 1924. She also launched a national letter-writing campaign encouraging others to adopt the poppy. She even planted poppies on what is now UGA’s Health Sciences Campus. Michael taught a class of disabled servicemen and every Monday attended Disabled American Veterans chapter meetings. She left her office and scoured local flower shops in search of silk poppies to share with businessmen, veterans and soldiers.Īfter the war, Athens and the University of Georgia became a hub for veteran rehabilitation. 9, 1918 - two days before the armistice that ended World War I - she wrote her own reply to McCrae’s poem entitled “We Shall Keep the Faith” and decided “always to wear a red poppy of Flanders Fields as a sign of remembrance and emblem of ‘keeping the faith with all who died.'” If ye break faith with us who die, we shall not sleep, though poppies grow in Flanders Fields.'” “‘To you from failing hands we throw the Torch be yours to hold ir high. “The last verse transfixed me,” she wrote. John McCrae’s famous poem “In Flanders Fields,” about the war’s devastation. It was while she was working for the war effort in New York that she was struck by a sudden inspiration.Ī young soldier left a copy of Ladies Home Journal on her desk with a marked page containing Lt. “I anguished for some power by which our boys might be saved from gas, bombs shrapnel," Michael wrote in her autobiography.ĭuring the war, Michael volunteered with the National YMCA. She also set up a campaign for the families to write the soldiers while they were overseas. She made sure soldiers were adopted by local families.
And through all the poppy sales around the world, her legacy of helping veterans lives on.” “She championed the poppy as a permanent symbol and reminder of our collective obligation to support our veterans and their families. “During her lifetime, if you adjust for inflation, poppy sales raised $3 billion worldwide, most of which went directly to veterans,” said Tom Michael, a great nephew of Moina Michael, who died in 1944. Now, nearly 100 years and billions of dollars later, the poppy has become the international symbol of remembrance and support for all military veterans, thanks to the tireless efforts of Moina Belle Michael, affectionately known today as “The Poppy Lady.” It began with a simple idea from a University of Georgia professor - sell poppy flowers to raise money on behalf of soldiers killed and injured in World War I. Editor’s Note: This is part of a series, called Georgia Groundbreakers, which celebrates innovative and visionary faculty, students, alumni and leaders throughout the history of the University of Georgia - and their profound, enduring impact on our state, our nation and the world.
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