A stock photo of a person wearing a poppy pin. (ID 198875477 © Oasisamuel | Dreamstime.com)

By Kenneth Cheung

LEST WE FORGET

For more than 25 years, a local Legion member has helped Meadow Lake remember its veterans

Oct 29, 2025 | 2:25 PM

At 10 a.m. on Nov. 11, Meadow Lake’s Legacy Hall will fill with the quiet hum of chairs, uniforms and poppies — the familiar rhythm of a community coming together to remember.

Among those who have helped make that moment possible year after year is Alloha Twanow. For more than 25 years, she has organized the city’s Remembrance Day service, ensuring the names, faces and stories of veterans are never forgotten.

“My dad was a veteran and that’s what keeps me motivated to participate in the Legion activity,” said Twanow, who serves as the poppy chair for the Royal Canadian Legion Branch 76.

She said her father’s quiet strength shaped the values she carries today.

“He treated his family and everybody else with the utmost of respect,” she said.

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The Meadow Lake Legion received its charter in 1926 and will mark its 100th anniversary next year – a century of remembrance Twanow and her fellow members continue to uphold.

Though there are few surviving veterans of the Second World War, she said the community still includes peacekeepers and those who served in Afghanistan.

Even as the generations shift, Twanow said the message of remembrance endures.

“Our service members have always worked to pursue peace, and I believe that we need to recognize those people, never forgetting that they died for that purpose,” she said.

Alloha Twanow, poppy chair with the Royal Canadian Legion Branch 76, is seen in this 2021 photo. (Meadow Lake Legion Br. 76/Facebook)

For her, remembrance is not only about the past — it’s about teaching what peace truly means.

“The state of the world today just, to me, accents the need to pursue peace,” she said.

“We need to make sure that our children, our young people, our young adults understand the purpose of being a Legion member and understand that recognizing new service people is important.”

This year’s ceremony will take place at Legacy Hall inside the Co-op Centre, beginning at 10 a.m. The program includes wreath-laying, recognition of veterans, and presentations for youth winners of the annual remembrance poster contest. A community lunch will follow at the Legion.

The poppy campaign, which runs from Oct. 31 to Nov. 11, remains one of the Legion’s most visible traditions. Twanow said donations — typically between $10,000 and $12,000 each year — go directly toward helping veterans and their families.

“We’ve helped provide lift facilities for veterans who are in the Northwest Community Lodge,” she said.

“We’ve helped with housing assistance, like a motion sensor light at their front steps just to keep them safe.”

She said the fund has also helped a veteran’s spouse meet financial needs after her husband passed away — proof, she said, of how deeply local donations can reach.

“The community has provided excellent support for the Legion and its veterans.”

As she looks ahead to another year of remembrance, Twanow hopes the message remains unchanged.

“Lest we forget.”

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Anyone wishing to donate to the Poppy Fund can contact Twanow at 306-240-4363.

(Meadow Lake Legion Br. 76/Facebook)

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Kenneth.Cheung@pattisonmedia.com