Burlington Cadets Send Poppy Money to Soldier Hurt in Hamilton Attack

Every dollar Burlington's cadets collected at poppy tables from Thursday to Saturday is going to Kenneth Kunkel, a Canadian Armed Forces member who was severely injured while supervising a poppy sale in Hamilton.

Hamilton Police said Kunkel sustained life-altering injuries when he was attacked by a 12-year-old boy and a 48-year-old woman. The pair had blown an air horn into a cadet's ear, and Kunkel confronted them before he was hit several times and fell.

"We are going to do everything we can for him," said Ron Holmes, Veteran Services Officer at Royal Canadian Legion Branch 60. "Everyone I talk to has just been aghast, they cannot understand why this happened."

The money is going to a GoFundMe set up in support of Kunkel, and Holmes said he hoped the cadets would bring in as much as $4,000 across the three days.

Poppies are still out around Burlington ahead of Remembrance Day, outside Burlington Centre, Mapleview Mall, grocery stores, the LCBO, Ikea and Costco. The cadets take loose change or a tap of a card.