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Published September 20, 2012, 06:53 AM

DAV raising money with flower sales

Dating back to the years right after World War I, a blue flower has been a symbol used for more than 90 years to honor the memory of those who have been injured and disabled in the line of military duty. From 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, forget-me-nots will be sold at six locations in Jamestown by the Jamestown Chapter of Disabled American Veterans.

By: Brian Willhide, The Jamestown Sun

Dating back to the years right after World War I, a blue flower has been a symbol used for more than 90 years to honor the memory of those who have been injured and disabled in the line of military duty.

From 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, forget-me-nots will be sold at six locations in Jamestown by the Jamestown Chapter of Disabled American Veterans.

“This is our biggest fundraiser of the year and, while DAV nationally does an excellent job lobbying and looking out for the best interests of our veterans, doing our part locally is extremely important also,” said Rod Olin, local adjutant/treasurer and past commander of the Jamestown Chapter of DAV.

About $3,000 was collected last year with the forget-me-nots sale.

The idea for selling the little blue flowers comes from an image carried home to the U.S. from the memories of soldiers in World War I, according to Olin, who has been with the Jamestown Chapter for the last seven years.

“Those soldiers had seen spring flowers growing on the graves of their comrades and allies killed in fighting,” he said.

The program is different from the red flowers sold at Memorial Day. DAV sells the blue forget-me-nots in the fall and the American Legion sells the red poppies in the spring.

While the group of volunteers will hold its sale efforts on both Friday and Saturday, the big push will come on Saturday, Olin said.

The forget-me-nots are available for a freewill donation to DAV at Hugo’s, the Jamestown Post Office and Perkins Family Restaurant in Jamestown. The chapter’s Auxiliary will be selling the flowers at The Depot Café, Coborn’s and the Buffalo Mall.

All proceeds stay in North Dakota and are used to fund the van used to transport veterans to the Veterans Affairs clinic, programs at the North Dakota Veterans Home in Lisbon, N.D., and for other local veterans’ projects.

The Jamestown Chapter of DAV includes 280 members. There are about 5,000 disabled veterans in North Dakota and about 1.2 million in the United States.

Sun reporter Brian Willhide can be reached at 701-952-8454 or by email at bwillhide@jamestownsun.com

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