Our support for children counts
Dear American Legion Family Members and Friends,
Nothing was said in The American Legion’s founding meetings, conventions or constitutional documents about a veteran’s place in the life of a child. “The subject developed into a major Legion program by sheer natural law,” author Richard Seelye Jones wrote in 1946. Back then, the Legion housed homeless children, fed the hungry, bought winter coats for those who were cold and helped them get on track if they fell into trouble.
Today, Legionnaires are still dedicating thousands of hours annually to continue doing such things and helping young people face challenges from domestic abuse to disabilities – and showing them they are not alone, no matter what they face.
In the most recent membership year, American Legion posts reported 21,131 activities in support of children and youth in their communities. The value of goods supplied by posts for children – from school supplies to holiday meals and wholesome events – came in at no less than $3,147,217. Monetary contributions for children and local groups that support them: $3,620,016.
How do we know this? Because over 67% of posts submitted their Consolidated Post Reports (CPRs) last year. These reports show, in hard facts, the ways in which The American Legion strengthens communities. I only wish we had 100% of posts reporting this phenomenal impact.
As we recognize April as Children & Youth Month in the American Legion Family, I salute those members and posts for tracking their work and submitting their CPRs. Our mentorship of children is a message I love to share during my travels, and real numbers truly bring the message home.
Those who know me understand my personal devotion to this particular pillar of our organization. My wife and I – like many grandparents in our American Legion Family – have few greater joys than spending quality time with our grandchildren, Alexander, Abigail and Natalia. And, after I retired from a career in the automotive service industry, I soon saw a need in my community that could make a difference for children, as a school bus driver, a job I have grown to love, knowing that if I can start a child’s day off with a smile, it’s going to be a good day for both of us.
The ways in which The American Legion acts on this purpose are many.
In Champaign, Ill., Post 24 devotes volunteer time and resources for the Tom Jones Challenger Baseball League for children with disabilities. Legionnaires from Post 1587 in New York operate an outdoor program specifically for Seneca Nation 13-year-olds who are learning native traditions, seizing opportunities to enjoy the outdoors and avoiding unhealthy alternatives. At Fort Riley, Kan., Legionnaires have made a holiday tradition of brightening the lives of active-duty personnel – many from the Warrior Transition Battalion – with children at home. In Wisconsin, Legionnaire Annastasia “Yiayia” Wischki founded Be the One 4 Our Youth, in which she educates schoolchildren about bullying, self-harm and suicide.
The American Legion Child Welfare Foundation awards hundreds of thousands of dollars in grants each year to extend our organization’s reach, through agencies and nonprofits that “contribute to the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual welfare of children and youth.”
This pillar of The American Legion has literally composed itself over the years – by “sheer natural law,” as the author wrote – because it makes substantial differences in every corner of society, differences veterans are duty-bound to deliver. And if the CPRs tell us anything, they do add up.