Duboistown VFW Auxiliary 7863 takes top honor at state, national Buddy Poppy competitions
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It's been a banner year for the VFW Auxiliary 7863, affectionately known as "The Buck," in DuBoistown, as the auxiliary recently brought home the top prize in both the state and national Buddy Poppy Display competitions.
"The Buddy Poppy is a VFW program that starts at the Post level, before going on to the district, department, and ultimately national level. It is one of many programs the VFW and auxiliary work on each year," committee chairman, three-year trustee and Patriotic Instructor Philip Dahl told the Sun-Gazette.
Along with Dahl, the committee was filled out by auxiliary members Sandy Vaught, Georgie Bower and Suzanne Decker.
The contests required submitted designs to utilize poppies purchased through the VFW store, with at least one retaining its original form, color and label.
Money from the sale goes to the VFW National Home and relief funds to be used as donations to veterans and families in need.
All poppies sold through the VFW are handmade by disabled veterans, with red poppies symbolizing male and female veterans and purple poppies symbolizing military service animals, Bower, scholarship chair and historian for the auxiliary explained.
The poppy as a symbol of military service originated in 1915 when Canadian physician and Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae penned the poem, "In Flanders Field," following the funeral of a friend and comrade.
"The grave was there, but it was full of red poppies, and he said it reminded him of the blood of the battlefield," Bower explained.
In 1922, the poppy would make its way to the U.S., when the VFW organized its first nationwide distribution.
Though modern competitions have been around for a while, this was the first year the outpost has been involved in such a competition.
As luck would have it, while doing research on military heroes, Georgie would stumble across Sergeant Reckless, a Mongolian mare who served in the Fifth Division U.S. Marine Regiment during the Korean War.
"The terrain was so rough they couldn't use their vehicles, so she was a pack horse," said Bower.
"They went to a racetrack, and there was somebody selling this little horse because he needed money to pay for an operation for his sister, so they brought her back to camp and trained her to go up the hill with ammunition, bring back a wounded soldiers, to drop down in the field or look for a foxhole whenever there was artillery fire," she said.
"She didn't need any instruction during the battles, and during one battle, did that 51 times," Decker, a trustee, added.
"When she wasn't in battle, she would lay telephone wires," Bower said.
The soldiers built such a bond with Sgt. Reckless that she was allowed to wander around the camp.
"She built such a bond with the personnel. She was one of the guys," Decker said.
"They let her sleep in the tents and she drank beer. She was like a dog, eating what they ate," she said.
"She was saving their lives because she was carrying the medical supplies and ammunition and sending them back," Bower said.
It was initially planned to leave her overseas when combat missions ceased, however the soldiers she served with raised funds to bring her back with them in November 1954.
By that point, Sgt. Reckless had become famous in her own right, and a large celebration, attended by over 400 people, including celebrities and politicians, all hoping for a photograph with the four-legged war hero.
"They had to take her up in an elevator to the ballroom, and she was in all the parades," Bower said, adding that she had more medals than most of the men she served with.
Today, a memorial to Sgt. Reckless stands at the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Triangle, Va.
As luck would have it, he was the perfect subject for the committee to take on.
"Suzanne and I worked with the South Williamsport Mountie Theater, and we had made life-sized horses for Cinderella," Bower explained.
The first horse being too small, was used for Sgt. Reckless' bust.
Before beginning work on their display, the committee looked at past entries and were beyond impressed, with one design being a ball gown made out of poppies.
It took the committee of four around 60 hours to complete the project, which utilized around 660 poppies.
"We met weekly at Georgie's house, and we had to do research because we couldn't use any copyrighted photos, so they all came from the Marine Archives, which is public domain," Decker said.
The committee also created mock-up medals representing some of the real ones awarded to Sgt. Reckless.
The purple poppies were all hand-painted by Vought, who serves as auxiliary chaplain, district 15 secretary and chair of the Poppy Committee.
The respective competitions included prizes for three categories: public promotion of the poppy campaign; memorial or inspirational display; and artistic or decorative use of poppies.
The display was crowned the first place winner for buddy poppy display on June 20 in Pittsburg, topping at least 30 different projects from across the state.
"It was exciting, and I was pretty proud. We won a lot of awards that weekend, but that was the biggest one," Decker said.
The design then moved on to the national competition in Reno, Nevada on July 28, where it would bring home The Director's Award for Best Overall.
"There were 50 states competing in three different categories, so we had a lot of competition," Bower said.
None of the committee members were present at the national convention, so naturally, all were on pins and needles as they waited to hear the results.
"One of our line officers, Carolyn Paccio, who set the display up at national, called me crying because she was so happy and so proud because she's one of our mentors," Decker said.
"I was speechless," said Vought.
"Everybody was messaging each other. It was an honor," she said.
With two major wins under their belt, and the election of 2026 looks to be a banner year for The Buck, who are gearing up for several upcoming events, including their annual coloring contest for South Williamsport students in grades kindergarten through fifth and a trunk-or-treat from 6 to 8 p.m. on Oct. 18.
The auxiliary will also host a fundraiser in support of its MilitaryShare food distribution food program from 1 to 5 p.m. on Nov. 14.
The fundraiser, in memory of Dahl's mother, Maurine "Toot" Rhine, a former treasurer of the auxiliary, will feature food for purchase, basket raffles and other prizes.