Thanks to a local veteran at the Safeway store, Anacortes residents will have the opportunity today to wear a “Buddy Poppy” in recognition of Veterans Day. Inspired by Col. John McCrae’s ” In Flanders Fields,” a poem about those who fought and died in France during World War I, the poppy is distributed by veterans organizations around the world as a memorial flower. Since 1922, the artificial Buddy Poppy has been dispensed by the VFW as a means of raising funds to help needy and disabled veterans, dependents of veterans, widows and orphans of deceased veterans. No profit is derived by any VFW unit. AnacortesToday.com extends its gratitude to all who have served their country in the military … and to those who are doing so today in the Middle East and elsewhere around the world.