Clearing up

Clearing up the mess.

Once Armistice Day has passed, the long process of preparing for next year begins. (Actually, I reckon that next years preparations begin long before this year has had the remembrance services, but we won't worry about that.) One of the things which needs to be sorted out after the Appeal finishes it's annual "timeslot" (can't think of a better description), are the partly used boxes of poppies which get returned to the factory.

As you might imagine, wasting the returned poppies would be ridiculous, so they're sorted into those which can be re-used and those which can't. Sometimes, an entire box has to go straight to waste because someone spilled beer in the box (some of the boxes which were in pubs are stinking of it), or coffee from the collector or just rain-damage. In others there's contamination from all sorts of things from sweet wrappers to flower petals to a shopping list (I've found all those in there); some of these can be easily sorted, others not so easy. Occasionally, there's something stuck to the poppies such as sweets, bits of pastry or pieces of bread (sandwich, perhaps?).

Anyway, the poppies get sorted out and any coins which are in the boxes go straight into a collecting tin and then to counting for the appeal. Today I found over £11! Mostly, it was small coins (I kept count to relieve the monotony of sorting), but I came across a £5 note in one box. That discovery had me dancing around the store, much to the amusement of Raymond (who was assisting me at that time).

The point of all this? Every penny counts for the appeal and the ex-servicefolk and their families it supports.