Summer is filled with American Legion post-sponsored youth champions

The summer months are busy for The American Legion’s Americanism programs – Boys State, Boys Nation, Legion Baseball and Junior Shooting Sports. The positive influence the American Legion Family is having on our youth through these programs is astounding and everyone involved should be proud of their efforts.

In 2017, 65,484 youth came together to form 3,638 Legion Baseball teams; 19,119 youth participated in 49 Boys State programs; and 1,386 youth entered the Legion’s Shooting Sports individual postal round competition where the top 30 made it to the national tournament in Colorado Springs, Colo.

As The American Legion prepares for its 100th anniversary, every post in this nation has had youth champions. Imagine the hundreds of thousands of lives that we have influenced – our youth heroes, our youth champions. Through our work with them, many realized how all of us veterans gave up years of our life to make a difference in this nation. We put our lives on hold for their future. And they are realizing that.

Now, some of them are putting their lives on hold also and joining the military and serving to give back to all of you. Some of them are putting the uniform on as a police officer, a firefighter or an emergency medical technician. They are going into politics. They are giving back to this nation because you took the time to spend with them when they needed the mentoring and training themselves.

God bless each and every one of you for that work. Each of you have something really special inside of you that makes you care about this great nation. Every moment you to support our American Legion Family programs you believe in in our organization, you believe in our family, and you believe in what we stand for.