Buddy Poppy Updates: Requirements, Challenges & Opportunities

Hello again! I trust this article finds you doing well! It’s been a little rough for me, so please accept my apologies now for my thoughts being just a little scattered. I’ll try not to ramble on.

I had some questions brought to my attention after SOI that got me thinking, so I did some digging. At SOI, I told you that purchasing 4 Buddy Poppies™ for every member of your auxiliary was a requirement for entering projects for competition at Fall Fest, Midwinter, and State Convention. While your post or auxiliary purchasing Buddy Poppies™ each auxiliary year is a requirement,

the specific number per member is a requirement for Post side for their All-State and All-American awards. The auxiliary side does not have a minimum number that is required to enter projects for competition. I also told you that only Post side could purchase them. I was corrected at SOI that both sides could purchase them from Department of Oklahoma Quartermaster Heidi Teeter, but your

Post side comrades would sure appreciate it if you went through them to purchase them, that way one purchase of Buddy Poppies™ covers both sides requirements for awards. For example, Auxiliary 1335 (my auxiliary) could purchase them straight from Quartermaster Teeter, but if I go through Post 1335 Quartermaster Goodballet to purchase them, then we are legal to enter our projects into the competitions, and Post 1335’s requirement for purchasing Buddy Poppies for the All-American Post award is covered also. So, please keep that in mind as you go about acquiring your Buddy Poppies for the year.

I also made the challenge at SOI that every auxiliary that holds a Buddy Poppy™ educational event for your community, and report it to me before Fall Fest, would go into a drawing for a $50 gift card. I thought about it on the way home from Tulsa and realized that the September newsletter article had already been written, and that I had only given you one month to plan and execute this drive. That just wasn’t fair to all of you, because unless you were at SOI in Tulsa, you either didn’t hear about it at all, or you only had a very short amount of time to plan and get it done. For this reason, I have decided to extend the drawing out to Midwinter, so you have up to February to plan and execute your drives. I want them to be hugely successful, so take the time you need to plan them right! If you need any help, ideas, suggestions, or have questions, please do not hesitate to get in touch with me! I will help you any way I can! If I don’t know an answer, I’ll dig until I find it!

Fall Fest is almost here, and I hope lots of you are almost done with your beautiful projects! I can’t wait to see all the creative projects you guys come up with! But even more than the projects, I can’t wait to just kick back, laugh, and relax with all of you. You all know it’s been a rough couple of months in my life, and the one thing it has taught me is that there is no time to waste on making sure that your friends and loved ones know just how much you care about them. Normalize telling people that you love them. Life is too short to assume

that they know. Tell them often. With that, I love each and every one of you, and I can’t wait until next week when we meet in Norman. See you soon!

Yours in service,

Chris Horne, Buddy Poppy™ Chairman