We did it! $515,346.23

I just learned that the Legion Riders have a final total.

Our goal was to match last year's $350,000. However, we raised $515,346.23 this year! They announced the final amount at the American Legion convention yesterday.

Thank you to everyone who helped support this effort. When the American Legion pledged to provide this fund, it was estimated that we'd need about $20m to provide college scholarships to all of the children whose parent have died in combat since 9-11. Much of that expenditure was 10 or even 20 years away.

In three years we have raised almost $1.5 million dollars - and it has come from donations as small as $5 from a trucker who asked us at a rest stop what we were doing. He was struggling with the price of diesel, but he asked us to accept $5. We donated it at the next night's stop.

Throughout the year, the Northern Virginia American Legion Riders raise money through the sale of food at various events (Sully Plantation, HOG, and holiday events at the Post). It represents a lot of hard work by some dedicated people. Fortunately, my company - SMS - also made a large conribution that helped us out this year, and it almost doubled what we had worked for all year. Thank you.

Mike