2008 News & Notes

Note from the Vice Commander - Jan 6th

“Those American Legion Riders, they sure do a lot of stuff.”

That is my vision for 2008. I want to overhear other bikers saying that when I’m in a crowd. I want 2008 to be the year we break out and recapture the fun of an earlier era and the American Legion duties we are responsible for.

To do that, I propose we begin assembling an ambitious agenda beginning with February’s meeting and completing it in March. The agenda should be for the entire year. The agenda would become our Calendar of Coming Events to be placed on the web site and on flyers all over town.

We should mix duty and fun. We should go to the Children’s Home at least twice – once in December for gift giving and once in June for ride giving. We should go to the Veteran’s Center at least twice – both times for gift-giving and fellowship with the people who gave so much to secure our freedoms. We should develop a contact at the Vet Center who could give us timely advice on the needs and wants of the vets. We could have a Poker Run where the entry fee is $10 worth of the items on our wish list, which could generate “loads of booty” for the children and the vets.

We should go to the V.A. Hospital or other veteran’s organization once or twice a year.

We need to have a monthly ride, half of which could be Poker Runs for the purpose of raising money for us or for a designated beneficiary such as “our wounded marine”. The other half would be just for fun and would include dinner rides or event rides or other organization’s rides.

Two American Legion Posts who want to do something with us have contacted me. One is Post 12 in Bethany. They sponsor an American Legion baseball team. They need help raising money for the team’s traveling and other expenses. They requested a poker run with the proceeds going to them. We would deduct our expenses and donate the rest to them. They asked us to travel to some of their home and away games. We would look impressive riding up to a ball game in full Post colors.

The other Post is in Beaver, Oklahoma. They want us to come to the International Cow Chip Throwing Contest in Beaver. They would get us into the parade and would provide seating in their booth for the festivities. This is a good old-fashioned country festival. I enjoyed the Okemah Founders Day Festival and the Rush Springs Watermelon Festival last year. Just good old country folks putting on a hoedown.

Some of our rides need to be joining other group’s rides, like Downed Bikers, Bikers for Babies Ride, Naysayers Toy Run, etc. When we show up on bikes, pipes roaring, Post 1340 colors flying, we make a great impression. Great impressions lead to increased membership. Being seen out in public often will start people saying –

“Those American Legion Riders – they sure do a lot of good stuff. "

 

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Revised: December 08, 2015 .

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