Riders With A Cause

Riders With A Cause

Legacy Scholarships

The American Legion Legacy Scholarship has awarded scholarship money while also growing its principal:

2004
One scholarship of $2,000 awarded.

2005
Three $2,000 scholarships awarded.

2006
Six $5,000 scholarships awarded.

2007
Eight scholarships awarded for $4,500 each.

2008
Eleven scholarships awarded for $3,720 each.

2009
Sixteen scholarships for $2,250 awarded.

2010
Ten scholarships at $4,000 each;
three scholarships at $2,000 each.

2011
Twenty-one scholarships at $2,275 each and two at $1,100 each.

2012
Eighteen scholarships at $2,775 each.

While the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are drawing down, some servicemen and women won’t be settling back into civilian life. They are among the thousands who gave their lives for our nation during those wars.

Now our nation and The American Legion honor their memories by assisting their children in earning college degrees. The American Legion Legacy Scholarship, established in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, was created to help young people whose parents lost their lives serving in the U.S. Armed Forces.

These children are eligible for federal aid toward their college educations. However, as the escalating cost of college tuition has continued, more help is needed. It is especially difficult for single-parent households to afford the entire cost of college education at this time.

That’s where the Legion’s Legacy Scholarship comes in. The goal for the fund is to raise $20 million - enough to allow just the principal to cover college education years from now. To achieve that goal, the Legion counts on one of its most popular and fastest-growing programs: The American Legion Riders.

Riders chapters are well known for their charitable work, which has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for local children’s hospitals, schools, veterans homes, severely wounded servicemembers and scholarships. Since 2006, Riders across the United States have joined forces for the Legion Legacy Run, an annual event to raise money for the Legacy Scholarship Fund. The Riders have been a major contributor to the fund, which now totals more than $5.7 million.

In 2012, The American Legion Legacy Run from Niagara Falls, N.Y., to the national convention in Indianapolis attracted more than 400 riders.