Shawnigan Lake鈥檚 Jim Carey and his staff at Mason鈥檚 Store & Patio Ltd. appreciate the war veterans in their community, and they showed their heartwarming commitment recently after thieves left the poppy coffers empty.

On Halloween night, a poppy box from the Malahat鈥檚 Royal Legion Branch 134 was stolen from Mason鈥檚 Store, which is owned by Carey, and the store stepped up to ensure the loss was more than covered.

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Carey personally donated $100 to the legion branch, his manager gave $20, and Carey鈥檚 uncle Rick Mason donated $40 when he heard about the theft.

鈥淢y grandfather Pat Mason, a veteran of the Second World War, helped build that legion,鈥� Carey said.

鈥淗e and my grandmother also bought Mason鈥檚 Store in 1956, so there鈥檚 a strong connection between my store and the Malahat Legion.鈥�

Carey said the store has had poppy boxes from the legion in the days running up to Remembrance Day for years without anything like this happening.

鈥淲e were getting the store ready for Halloween and didn鈥檛 notice when someone in the store must have taken the poppy box,鈥� he said.

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Legion member Virginia Bauder said she can鈥檛 recall another theft of a poppy box in her six years as part of the local legion鈥檚 poppy campaign.

The money from the Royal Canadian Legion鈥檚 Poppy Fund campaign is used to help local veterans and their families who are in need.

鈥淲hat Jim and the store did was an act of kindness that we won鈥檛 forget,鈥� Bauder said.

鈥淭here might have been $15 or $20 in the box at most. It wasn鈥檛 his fault and he didn鈥檛 have to give us the money, but this is Shawnigan Lake and it鈥檚 full of good people.鈥�

Bauder said the theft was reported to the RCMP.

robert.barron@cowichanvalleycitizen.com
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