Community service increases among Legion posts

Community service increases among Legion posts

The recently compiled 2014 Consolidated Post Report (CPR) - which tabulates numbers on just about everything American Legion posts do, from blood donation to funeral honors to youth programs and more - reveals that posts donated 3,756,228 hours of community service (contributions to the community beyond established Legion programs) in 2014, at a cost of $4,263,505. Both are increases from 2013. That averages out to 422 hours for each of the 8,900 posts that turned in reports.

Some other areas of post activity seeing an increase include emergency aid; donations to Temporary Financial Assistance, Special Olympics and other charities; participation in career fairs; outreach to homeless veterans; Junior Shooting Sports participation; and Get Out the Vote programs. In terms of communications, post websites and Facebook pages continue to increase.

These cannot be called final numbers for the entire American Legion - the 8,900 posts represent a 67 percent response rate from the 13,290 total posts worldwide, leaving a full third of posts' activities unaccounted for. All posts are strongly encouraged to fill out and submit CPRs, whether in paper-based form or online through myLegion.org.

See the compiled 2014 CPR results here.