The Beginning of 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 can
be purchased directly through the American Legion National Emblem
Sales. Examples of the patch can be viewed on our website:
http://www.americanlegionriders.net.
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 and
again in May 2002. 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:
(1)
Participation in the
annual POW/MIA Rally held each Memorial weekend in Washington D.C.
known as "Rolling Thunder".
(2)
Sponsoring or
participating in local Charity events and providing Community
Service.
(3)
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.
(4)
Sponsoring or
participating in motorcycle "Runs" to benefit numerous charities,
including charities for underprivileged children and medical
research, just to name a few.
(5)
Participation in memorial
ceremonies and community parades.
(6)
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 and Michigan House of Representatives 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 also 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.
What
are the requirements to become an American Legion Rider?
-
Be a current member of the
American Legion, American Legion Auxiliary or Sons of the American
Legion.
-
Own a motorcycle (at least
250cc) or be the spouse of an owner who is an American Legion Rider
member.
Note: Must meet requirements of both 1 & 2
