Dogs host Caps tonight, Remembrance Day tomorrow.

 The Bulldogs begin a busy week tonight with the Cowichan Valley Capitals visiting the Dog Pound. It's the busiest week of the seasno for the Dogs with four games coming up - read my Weekly Preview article from the Dogs website HERE

Rick Schievink and I take to the air at 6:45 with the pregame show. The play-by-play follows at 7:00 on your radio on 93.3 The Peak FM or on your computer at www.933thepeak.com or www.bchl.ca
 
It's Remembrance Day tomorrow - or Veterans Day for our American blog readers. Don't forget those who gave their lives, so we can do fun things like play hockey, watch hockey, blog about hockey, or just plain have the freedom to do whatever we want.

Poppy Facts

• During the Napoleonic Wars, the poppy drew attention as the mysterious flower that bloomed over the graves of fallen soldiers.
• In the 20th Century, the poppy again was widely noticed after soils in France and Belgium became rich in lime from rubble during the First World War. The little red flowers flourished around the graves of the war dead as they had 100 years earlier.
• In 1915, Guelph, Ontario native John McCrae, a doctor serving with the Canadian Forces Artillery, recorded this phenomenon in his famous poem In Flanders Fields.
• Two days before the Armistice, Moina Michael, an American woman from Athens, Georgia, read the McCrae poem and was inspired to wear a poppy year-round in memory of the war dead.
• In 1920, Madame E. Guérin of France visited the United States and happened to meet Miss Michael at the YMCA at Columbia University, where the latter was a volunteer. Madame Guérin then resolved to sell handmade poppies around Armistice Day to raise money for poor children in the war-torn areas of Europe.
• In 1921, Field-Marshall Earl Haig, the former Commander-in-Chief of the British Armies in France and Belgium and the principal founder of the British Legion, was sold on Madame Guérin's fundraising idea and approved organization of the British Poppy Day Appeal by the Legion to raise money for poor and disabled veterans.
• The same year, Madame Guérin visited Canada, and convinced the Great War Veterans Association (predecessor to the Royal Canadian Legion) to similarly adopt the poppy as a symbol of remembrance in aid of fundraising.
• Today, the Poppy Campaign is one of the Royal Canadian Legion's most important programs. The money raised from poppy sales provides direct assistance for ex-service people in financial distress, as well as funding for medical appliances and research, home services, care facilities, and numerous other purposes. 

One of my favorite Remembrance Day Messages comes from this song and video by Canadian Artist Terry Kelly. Here's the story behind the song, "A Pittance of Time"



On November 11, 1999 Terry Kelly was in a drug store in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. At 10:55 AM an announcement came over the stores PA asking customers who would still be on the premises at 11:00 AM to give two minutes of silence in respect to the veterans who have sacrificed so much for us.

Terry was impressed with the stores leadership role in adopting the Legions two minutes of silence initiative. He felt that the stores contribution of educating the public to the importance of remembering was commendable.

When eleven oclock arrived on that day, an announcement was again made asking for the two minutes of silence to commence. All customers, with the exception of a man who was accompanied by his young child, showed their respect.

Terrys anger towards the father for trying to engage the stores clerk in conversation and for setting a bad example for his child was channeled into a beautiful piece of work called, A Pittance of Time. Terry later recorded A Pittance of Time and included it on his full-length music CD, The Power of the Dream.

Thank You to the Royal Canadian Legion Todmorden Branch #10 and Woodbine Height Branch #2 for their participation in the Video.

Please visit www.terry-kelly.com

Please take a few minutes to reflect yourselves, and to teach the younger generations about the sacrifices made in the past and in the present.

Local Remembrance Day services go at ADSS - you MUST BE SEATED by 10:30. 

Hammer