55 - Georgia, Moina Belle Michael
A simple gesture and sentiment that grew to be a century long tradition helping disabled veterans in the world, Moina Michael created the silk poppy memorial pins and brought awareness, compassion, and therapy to people. Georgia adopted the Nineteenth Amendment to their constitution on February 20, 1970. While Ms. Moina Michael was vacationing in Germany in summer of 1914, World War 1 broke out, leaving many tourists stranded or frightened. She traveled to Rome to get return passage to America, and as working to get home assisted around 12,000 US tourists. As America entered the war in 1917, she took a leave of absence to volunteer with the overseas YWCA workers. In 1918, she shared a poem “We Shall Keep the Faith” and vowed to wear a red poppy as a symbol of remembrance for all veterans of the war. To raise money to support disabled veterans in her classes after the war, she began to sell pins of silk poppies, and by 1921 the poppy was adopted as a symbol of remembrance ...