There will be no Veterans, Cadets or Legion members selling poppies in-person this year.
Due to COVID-19, there will also be additional changes to the Nov. 11 Remembrance Day ceremony as well.
Poppies this year will be available in trays at local businesses and stores. People will be able to donate their change into the drop box, and pick up a poppy, without interacting with other people and reducing the risk of spreading COVID-19.
Selling of the poppies in previous years have raised an average of $30,000 a year for the local branch of the Royal Canadian Legion. The funds go to support veterans, donations to the Penticton Regional Hospital and to supplying bursaries for students to attend post-secondary education.
Restrictions and changes to the Remembrance Day ceremony also take social distancing and the vulnerability of many veterans into account.
In the morning official ceremony will be marked out and VIP-only with limited invitations.
This year there will be no members of the Cadets as part of the ceremony.
There will be no ceremony at the Penticton Trade and Convention Centre this year.
Instead, after the morning ceremony is complete, the public is invited to come down and lay their own wreaths and visit the Cenotaph on their own schedules, and to maintain social distancing while doing so.
The morning ceremony will be live-streamed on the Penticton Western News Facebook page.
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