The American Legion Riders are members
of the American Legion who are also motorcycle enthusiasts.
They can be found participating in parades, partaking
in motorcycling events, and supporting the communities
in which they live, work, and play. Members of the ALR
come from the Legion, the Legion Auxilliary, and the
Sons of the American Legion. The American Legion Riders
were formed...
...to participate in parades and other ceremonies that
are in keeping with the Aims and Purposes of the American
Legion.
...to promote motorcycle safety programs and to provide
a social atmosphere for American Legion members who
share the same interest.
...to use our Association to promote and support programs
of the American Legion.
The American Legion Riders is not a M/C, and does not
practice M/C rules or regulations. The American Legion
Riders is family-oriented, just as is its parent organization:
the American Legion. |
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. |
