Submitted Photo Val Bohlig, left, American Legion Auxiliary Poppy Chairman, joins Minot Mayor Curt Zimbelman with a poppy as he signs a proclamation supporting the group’s annual Poppy Day fundraising effort.

The Minot American Legion Auxiliary has designated Saturday as Poppy Day. Minot Mayor Curt Zimbelman signed a proclamation urging everyone to pay tribute to veterans by wearing a poppy that day.


Members of the auxiliary will be at several Minot businesses distributing the red, handicrafted flower made by veterans in veterans homes and hospitals. The poppies distributed in Minot were made at the Veterans Home in Lisbon. The auxiliary provides the materials and pays the veterans a small amount to make each flower. Donations will be accepted for each poppy with proceeds used for projects benefiting local veterans and veteran homes.


The American Legion Auxiliary adopted the red poppy as its memorial flower at the organization’s first convention in 1921. The poppy was chosen because during World War I the wild poppies grew amid the rubble of war in France.