Honor/Remembrance for the Fallen

Poppy Days: Dates, Drives, and Donations
As we move through National Military Appreciation Month which includes Loyalty Day (1st), VE Day (8th), Military Spouse Day (12th), Armed Forces Day (20th), National Maritime Day (22th) and Memorial Day (29th) -- and actually Mother's Day (14th), too -- I invite you to 'pin a poppy on' during Poppy Days in remembrance of our lost veterans.
Resources on the large variety of ways you can join together with the nation and help out our veterans and their families below the fold. And if you'd like a bit more history and poetry, please see the companion piece, Poppy Days: Remembering Our Veterans' Sacrifices.

From the Great Poems of the World War: Electronic Edition, W. D. Eaton:

POPPIES:
CAPT. JOHN MILLS HANSON, F.A.
IN The Stars And Stripes, A.E.F., France
POPPIES in the wheat fields on the pleasant hills of France,
Reddening in the summer breeze that bids them nod and dance;
Over them the skylark sings his lilting, liquid tune--
Poppies in the wheat fields, and all the world in June.
Poppies in the wheat fields on the road to Monthiers--
Hark, the spiteful rattle where the masked machine guns play!
Over them the shrapnel's song greets the summer morn--
Poppies in the wheat fields--but, ah, the fields are torn.
See the stalwart Yankee lads, never ones to blench,
Poppies in their helmets as they clear the shallow trench,
Leaping down the furrows with eager, boyish tread
Through the poppied wheat field to the flaming woods ahead.
Poppies in the wheat fields as sinks the summer sun,
Broken, bruised and trampled--but the bitter day is won;
Yonder in the woodland where the flashing rifles shine,
With their poppies in their helmets, the front files hold the line,
Poppies in the wheat fields; how' still beside them lie
Scattered forms that stir not when the star shells burst on high;
Gently bending o'er them beneath the moon's soft glance,
Poppies of the wheat fields on the ransomed hills of France

In Gratitude and Thanks
Please do what you can, 'pin a poppy on', donate, volunteer...whatever feels right in remembrance of those who've sacrificed so much for our country.
Thanks, Ilona
Visit the subject link to read the rest, this is but a snippet, and find out more about the tradition of the poppy as to Honoring Those Who Sacrifice-On Wrong or Right Policies.

Ilona's close, as described by her, what may be the perfect little poem, written by one of the poppy makers at Yountville's [CA] Veterans Home:

A scrap of blood red paper,
A twist of green and black:
We make these poppies in memory,
Of the men who never came back
Far from home and loved ones,
They sleep in foreign lands;
So wear this poppy proudly,
Remembering for whom it stands.