Oklahoma American Legion Riders rode to Durant American Legion Post 39 Green-Bryant last month during a legacy run to raise funds for the American Legion Veterans and Children Foundation.
“Every year, we ride,” said Brett Martin, director of the Oklahoma American Legion Riders. “We start all year fundraising but then once a year we have an in-state legacy run. The run’s purpose is to help raise more funds. We support the national Veterans and Children Foundation. We used to set up a ride and support scholarships for kids who lost their parents but there’s so much money in that account they don’t need it anymore.”
Because of that, Martin said they switched to the Veterans and Children Foundation which is a national cause sponsored by the American Legion.
“At the end of the day, every dollar we raise, we give back,” Martin said.
There were about 42 riders who visited Durant, according to Martin.
Hayden Woods, past department commander and a current commander of Post 39 Green-Bryant, said the Veterans and Children Foundation helps veterans and their families if they have hardships or financial difficulties.
“It pays to what we call temporary financial assistance if they’ve got children,” Woods said. “If there’s things that happen like tornadoes … and things like that, that happen here in Oklahoma, well, they have the national emergency fund and that’s about $5,000 that they can donate or give back to those veterans and their family.”
Woods said scholarships are also provided to help children and grandchildren of veterans.
“We have a lot of other programs that we use for our children and our youth,” Woods said. “We have a lot of different programs that the American Legion does for our communities.”
Woods said the Legacy Riders are veterans or family members of veterans.
“They just sign up and the do what we call poker runs and legacy runs where they help donate and raise money inside our state so that our state can give that money to national which we’ll be doing in August,” Woods said. “Right now, we have what we call our in-state legacy run which means that they’re going to travel throughout the state gathering money.”
According to Woods, more than $100 was donated to the riders by Post 39 Green-Bryant.
