The American Legion Riders
In the fall of 1993 Chuck (Tramp) Dare shared a dream
with then Post Commander (Polka) Bill Kaledas at the
American Legion Post 396 in Garden City, Michigan. The
idea came about to start a motorcycle association that
would operate within the American Legion. The idea was
to provide an atmosphere whereas Post, Auxiliary and
S.A.L. members, who shared an enthusiasm for
motorcycles, could come together. It was meant to be a
family oriented group.
Not knowing how to start this group up, and stay within
the scope of the American Legion, a letter was written
to then Department Adjutant Hubert Hess. In his
November 19th, 1993 reply he stated that it "Sounds like
a great idea". In this letter, and follow-up phone
conversations, he gave us instructions on how to manage
this program at our Post. He also provided us
information on how to get approval for the use of the
American Legion Emblem. We then sought to get this
program recognized through our Post Membership. The
idea was brought up at our Post meeting to have our Post
sponsor the group to be known as the "American Legion
Riders". It was passed by our members and thus became
the birth of the first American Legion Riders group.
We started with just a small group. Within a few months
we grew to nineteen members. We worked on developing a
set of by-laws to help us to provide structure to our
group. We designed an emblem for the American Legion
Riders. This emblem, contained within its design, the
emblem of the American Legion. Working closely with our
Department Adjutant we were able to gain approval, by
the national headquarters of the American Legion, to
have our emblem manufactured for our group. This emblem
is worn today by Legion Rider groups throughout the
country and is available to it's members through and
State chapters.
Another important decision we made, with concurrence of
our Department Adjutant, was to not require members that
wanted to become legion Riders to transfer to our
Post. Our Post sponsored the American Legion Rider
group, but not all of our members belong to our
Post. We felt that if we required members to transfer
to our Post that this would cause a lot of hard feelings
in other Post near our own community. What we soon
found out was that our membership grew, not from current
legion members, but many joined the American Legion to
become members of the American Legion Riders. A very
conservative estimate would say that over half of our
current membership joined the American Legion to enable
them to join the Riders.
Right after starting we proceeded to get down to
"business". Our objective was to support the aims and
purposes of the American Legion, through service to our
Community, State and Nation. We did such things as
putting on a "Bingo" at the VA Hospital, putting on
fundraisers for local charities, participating in
motorcycle "runs" to raise money for charity and
participation in ceremonies and parades. We did have
some Post members who thought, in the beginning, that we
would be just a bunch of "Bikers". After seeing the
kinds of things we did, we gained a lot of respect in
both the American Legion community as well as our own
community.
In 1996 we had an article published about the American
Legion Riders in the American Legion National
publication of the "Dispatch". An article in the
American Legion Magazine soon followed up this
article. In about 1996 "Tramp" moved to Texas, where he
did a great job of promoting the Legion Rider program
there. Today, there are groups of American Legion
Riders throughout the country.
Where we are today
As the membership of the American Legion Riders is a
very diverse group, so are the programs that they are
involved in. By allowing each American Legion Rider
Chapter to give their members the ability to manage
their program at the Post level, the program has been
allowed to grow. Today there exist Legion Rider programs
in several states, and many more starting. The types of
things that these groups are doing are far too many to
mention in this article, but here are a few examples:
- Participation in the annual POW/MIA Rally held
each Memorial weekend in Washington D.C. known as
"Rolling Thunder".
- Sponsoring or participating in local Charity
events.
- Raising money for such organizations as local VA
Hospitals, Battered Women and Children's Center,
Varied Children and Youth programs, a School for Blind
Children, Veterans Relief, Needy families and many, many
others.
- Sponsoring or participating in motorcycle
"Runs" to benefit numerous charities, including
charities for underprivileged children and medical
research, just to name a few.
- Participation in memorial ceremonies and community
parades.
- One group is spearheading an effort to erect a
"Veterans Memorial Park" in the center of their Downtown
area.
The recognition by local communities has marked the
program as a true success. The American Legion Riders
Group in Michigan was even honored by the Local City
Council, when they drafted a resolution Declaring the
American Legion Riders as a valuable asset to the
community. Motorcyclist can be a very dedicated group
of people. When you combine this with the fact that
they are legionnaires, you create a win/win situation.
Who benefits from forming an American Legion Riders
Group?
We all do!!!! Many of the groups, in existence today,
have all had stories where some of their Post members
were a little reluctant to let a group of "Bikers" in to
their Post. After seeing what these groups were doing
for the American Legion their opinion soon changed. Not
only did the Post welcome them, but in most cases did
what they could to help support their efforts, by
participating in some of the groups fundraising
events. There are also many stories where the American
Legion Riders group worked in conjunction with the Post
to sponsor a program. The Post was glad to have their
help and the Riders were honored to be asked. We were
able to break down some barriers. Just because one
person wears a leather motorcycle jacket and another
wears a golf shirt and slacks, we now know that we can
work together to promote the aims and purposes of the
American Legion. We have done it, and everyone involved
was able to see the benefit. The American Legion Riders
was never intended to be a "Motorcycle Club". As
stated, it is to be able to work with the Local Post to
assist in promoting the American Legion.
Membership, Membership, Membership!! Literally every
Post program of the American Legion Riders has brought
in members that may not have joined the American Legion
were it not for the Riders program. The Riders program
has been able to spark a new interest to join the
American Legion. Some of these members, who joined for
the Legion Rider program, have gone on to serve as
Officers within their Post. Conversely, we have also
had Post members go out and purchase motorcycles just to
join the Riders. There was one story from a Post that
recently started an American Legion Riders group. It
advertised for the first meeting of the group. They
originally intended for only about six or seven members
to show up to the first meeting. When the meeting
started they had seventeen people wanting to join, nine
of these people were joining the American Legion that
night so that they could become members of the Legion
Riders. Have you had a program that has brought in that
many new members in one night lately?
Pure enjoyment!! The program was designed to have
people work together and enjoy themselves. It may be a
group of Riders working on a fundraiser for a local
charity, it may be just a warm summer evening ride
together or maybe just sitting at the Post sharing
stories. It's all about members working together and
playing together - it is there for them to enjoy.
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