The Sylvan Lake Legion awarded three post-secondary students with bursaries from the Poppy Fund at the Legion on Saturday.

Student recipients were required to prove their educational enrolment and that the’ve had family involved in the military, according to Poppy Fund Sharon Graham.

“This is to go to needy students,” she said. “If you win the lottery and then try and get money from us it won’t work, but with the cost of university now, we feel that pretty much all students are needing it.”

Darby Desrosiers, Alex Palm and Christopher Bryant were the three bursary recipients. All were appreciative of the money they were given.

Desrosiers’s great-grandfather and two great-uncles were both WWII veterans. She’s a first-year geology student who is attending Mount Royal University, and plans to go to Iceland for two weeks to study tectonic plates and volcanoes.

“I’m really excited,” she said. “I’m the only first-year student going on the trip and the bursary money helps out a lot. I’m going to use the money for my trip to Iceland and my education.”

Bryant’s grandfather was a WWII veteran as well. He’s a third-year welder at Red Deer College and said this year marked the first time he applied for the bursary.

“I was surprised but happy (to receive it),” he said. “The money is appreciated.”