Veterans selling buddy poppies

Staff Reports

The Veterans of Foreign Wars will be selling Memorial Day buddy poppies in front of the Raley's, Scolari's and Wal-Mart on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Money raised will go to Operation Uplink to purchase phone cards for service members in Iraq to keep in touch with their families and for the Spouse House at Veterans Administration Hospital in Reno, according to Carson Valley Post 8583 Cmdr. Jack Nester.

The local post has 126 members and meets the second Thursday of the month in the Elks Hall.

Veterans have been selling buddy poppies for more than 75 years, according to vfw.org.

The tradition is based on the poem "In Flanders Field," written by Col. John McRae of Canada, which describes fields of red poppies blowing among the battleground of the fallen.