The Royal Canadian Legion's national poppy campaign kicks off today, and organizers say they've introduced some new initiatives to breathe fresh life into the annual tradition.
Among those are environmentally friendly, biodegradable poppies and wreaths, made of mostly natural materials including paper, moss and bamboo.
The Legion is also introducing ``Poppy Stories'' this year, an initiative that enables people to scan lapel poppies with their smartphones to be presented with information and anecdotes about the lives of real Canadian veterans.
There will be more than 27-thousand traditional poppy boxes at locations across the country where Canadians can donate cash and receive a poppy pin in the lead-up to Remembrance Day.
That's in addition to one-thousand electronic boxes that accept payments from tap-enabled devices or cards.
Nujma Bond, communications manager for the Legion's national headquarters, says the new initiatives aim to carry on and modernize the tradition of remembrance.
Brent Craig, a veterans' Service Officer at a west Ottawa legion branch , says the roughly 20-million dollars typically raised through the poppy campaign go directly into a range of programs that support veterans and their needs.