Benidorm commemorates The Poppy Appeal in l’Aigüera Park

The mayor of Benidorm, Toni Pérez, and the General Staff Lisa Keetley, of the NATO High Availability Terrestrial Headquarters based in Bétera (Valencia) have presided over the traditional act organized by the British Royal Legion (BRL) in Benidorm in memory of British soldiers who fell in the line of duty since the First World War.

The pandemic has advised dispensing with the usual veterans parade in Rincón de Loix in Benidorm, maintaining a safe distance between attendees and reducing representations. In Oscar Esplá Auditorium of lAigüera Park, before the flags of Spain and the United Kingdom and the banners of the RBL districts, a response was read and after the sounds of cornet and bagpipes and wreaths made with the emblem of the celebration; poppies.

The district president, Don Cubbon, the vice-consul in Alicante, Sara Munsterhjelm, and the representative of the RBL Jim Thompson participated in the tribute while the "Standards Bearers" gave the signs to the sound of response. The anthems of Spain and the United Kingdom have closed the emotional and simple act.

The Royal British Legion is a non-profit organization that, with the celebration of The Poppy Appeal, distributes 25 million fabric poppies, mostly made by people with functional diversity. The benefits obtained in the form of donations are used to help former military personnel and their families who have suffered the consequences of the armed conflicts.

The icon that presides over this celebration around the world, the poppy, comes from the vision, after the First World War, of the fields of Flanders in which so many soldiers lost their lives. Large green expanses where thousands of red poppies stood out as reflected in the inspirational poem of the movement "In Flanders Fields" written during World War I by the Canadian medical lieutenant colonel John McCrae.