MOU with America250 makes official yearlong partnership that truly started in 2025.
Family,
During the March 2 Commander’s Call portion of our recent Washington Conference, America250 Executive Vice President Jennifer Condon offered two suggestions that perfectly fit the American Legion Family:
Go to the America250 website and register under America Gives Through this initiative, individuals and organizations – such as posts/units/squadrons – can record their hours of community service and have a chance to be chosen as one of 250 groups that can choose a charity for $1 million in donations.
Our friends at America250 tell us that hours recorded through the USA 250 Challenge – 250 acts of fitness, wellness and/or service, in support of the Veterans & Children Foundation – can count toward the total. So far, more than 1.7 million hours of service have been recorded on America Gives since it debuted Jan. 1. Let’s get American Legion Family hours included.
Rally your community around our flag for the 250th anniversary If ever there were an opportunity tailor-made for the American Legion Family, it’s America Waves. Condon explained that the vision here is for everyone, from sea to shining sea, to raise our great U.S. flag in one mass expression of patriotism on July 4, 2026. Imagine streets lined with U.S. flags, waved from suburban neighborhoods to main streets to country roads.
“We want to create a sea of red, white and blue from town squares to stadiums to the National Mall,” she said. “Imagine, millions of Americans across generations lifting the same symbol at the same moment. That’s what America Waves is all about.” She made the point that “no organization has done more to honor and respect our flag than The American Legion.”
As American Legion Riders escort a very special U.S. flag from Pittsburgh to Washington, D.C., on the Fourth of July as part of Sojourn 250, everyone everywhere, from the smallest towns to the biggest cities, need to step forward for a day of flag-waving celebration in unison.
Onstage at the Commander’s Call, Condon and National Commander Dan Wiley ceremonially signed an agreement making The American Legion an official National Resource partner for America250. Posts and departments have been collaborating with their America250 commissions for most of the last year on dozens of events and activities. Now, with only four months to go before the big day, let’s show America what it means to be servant leaders in our communities and what the colors of our country mean to us. And as you and your post plan and deliver your programs and events, be sure to share words and photos about them through the national Legiontown site at legion.org/legiontown under the America 250 category.
Past National Commander Daniel J. Seehafer is chairman of the American Legion Ad Hoc Committee on the 250th Anniversary of America.
- USA250