November can be cold, but it begins a season of warming hearts and remembering.
Remembrance Day is Nov. 11 and the Okotoks Royal Canadian Legion kicked off its poppy campaign this week.
The relatively new legion has done yeoman – and yeowoman’s – work since opening.
The poppy campaign is a reminder worn over the heart to pay our respects to those who have and continue to serve Canada – something that may even be more important after the somewhat fractured state of our country as a result of the Oct. 21 election.
Okotoks has shown unity, as there are countless businesses with donation boxes selling poppies. And there are hundreds of people wearing these poppies, including Okotoks area dignitaries who were pinned officially on Oct. 29 with a poppy during a ceremony at the Town office.
November also coincides with the kick-off of the Wheel Cares campaign in which readers contribute to a pot that is split between eight Foothills area charities.
They are Big Brothers Big Sisters, Foothills Country Hospice, Inclusion Foothills Association, Magic of Christmas, Okotoks Food Bank, Pound Rescue, Rowan House Emergency Shelter and Sheep River
Health Trust.
One of the highlights for editorial staff is writing features about the respective organizations.
I still tear up from a story of a few years ago of a Foothills Country Hospice staff member who filmed a young girl’s Christmas play because the dying mother could not attend.
Features of the organizations will appear in The Wheel starting next week, all with an important story to tell. Stories are nice, but it’s the community that makes Wheel Cares campaign a success. The Wheel may fuel the campaign but it is you who drive it to its final destination.
It’s also the community – and the work of the Legion – that makes the poppy campaign a success. And that does warm the heart on a cold day.
