THE MADISON AMERICAN LEGION POST 157

The purpose of the American Legion is to support and assist Veterans and people in the local community. It consists of the Legion, the American Legion Auxiliary Unit 157, the American Legion Riders, and the Sons of the American Legion. 

They perform the following services in Madison: 

1. Participating in The REACH program, delivering food to people of special needs in Madison County along with providing volunteers at the Reva Mobile Food Pantry. 
2. Repairing the picnic pavilion at the Post for local use and rental. 
3. Supporting the Madison Marksman Youth Shooting Sports Team.  Developing an air gun and archery range for this American Legion/4-H Marksman Program. 
4. Working with the Department of Parks and Recreation to support the roller hockey program. 
5. Holding fundraiser supper events to provide scholarships to Madison High School and home schooled students. 
6. Providing scholarships to Madison students for Boys and Girls State. 
7. Placing flags on Main Street on national holidays. 
8. Providing a ceremonial rifle team for funerals, Memorial Day, and Veteran’s Day. 
9. Assisting Veterans in getting their VA benefits. 
10. Provides reduced cost meeting space to local non-profits and health programs like Alcoholics Anonymous.  

To accomplish all this our American Legion Post needs both more members and current members to help.  If you are an honorably discharged veteran of any branch of the Armed Services who served during war or peace you are eligible to become a member.  

We sponsor several programs, functions and projects yearly. Our Americanism programs in our public schools teach our students about our military history, the true meaning of military federal holidays, and letter writing campaigns to our service men and service women fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq.  We hold several contests for grades K-8th, awarding certificates to all participants and medals to the top three places.   To provide scholarship money and an opportunity to go to the national level, we host the annual Oratorical contest for our high school students and send several eleventh graders in the summer to the Boys and Girls and Law Cadet State Programs.  

Projects such as OPERATION WARM HEART-  sending Christmas stockings to our troops in remote forward operations areas (FOA) of Afghanistan. The Auxiliary made sand scarfs for our troops and the community sent cards, letters, and posters throughout the year. These were just a few of the projects we have done.   

Our BLUE STAR FLAG program is on-going and we provide this service to any family that has a son or daughter serving in Afghanistan or Iraq.      

We hosted a group of USO Style Canteen dances starting with the music heard during WWII, followed by the sounds of music listened during the Korean War and finally the Vietnam era music.  The hall was decorated appropriately for that particular time period to include Betty Grable pin ups in the mens bath room for WWll and trivia items to bring back memories for each dance.   We interact with our Senior citizens with flag posting, visits and providing an avenue for them to help support our troops with various projects. 

Our most recent dance welcomed a cheerful beginners Square Dance. 

We also have hosted free family movie nights. 

Annual ceremonies include:  Veterans Day, Pearl Harbor Day, The Four Chaplains Ceremony and Memorial Day.   Details are published in the local online news outlets and on our calendar.  

We have a "Flag Box" for citizens to drop off flags that are no longer in display condition.  

Annually we have a Flag retirement ceremony that ensures proper dignity is displayed for our national symbol as we relieve each flag of their duty.  

These are just a few items of what we do and we are always looking for new ideas and suggestions for improvement.   Contact us:  540-547-6160