Making a Difference, Community by Community
Youth Service-Learning
The National Service Ride Project, in partnership with the Orange County Youth Bureau and with the support of the Orange County American Legion and Legion Riders, is synergizing a coalition of government, veteran, community, and volunteer organizations to assist schools in integrating service-learning into their school curriculum. In support of New York State’s Seal of Civic Readiness Program, the coalition helps schools identify county community service and veterans’ organizations, volunteer groups, and local businesses for the high school-run volunteer fairs. The National Service Ride Project provides context, helping students understand the "what" and "why" of service and increasing their likelihood to do community service for personal growth, mental and social resilience, and academic advancement. With access to the United Way of the Dutchess-Orange Region’s virtual volunteer portal, youths can better find community service-learning opportunities after school, over the summer, or beyond graduation. They and their schools can track and certify service-learning hours, gathering data on curriculum outcomes.
Honor Flight Youth Guardians
Starting in the spring of 2024, The National Service Ride Project, in support the support of the Orange County American Legion and Legion Riders and Hudson Valley Honor Flight, is helping to enable select high school seniors and young veterans to escort Vietnam-era and other veterans on Hudson Valley Honor Flight missions to see the monuments in our nation’s capital in their honor and receive a “welcome home” for which many have waited over a half-century. While this provides youths a unique, first-hand opportunity to meet these heroes and gain a greater understanding of the meaning and value of patriotism and service, it also helps assure these veterans that their legacy and stories will live long beyond them. As such, this program is intended to help the passing of the baton of leadership from one generation of Americans to the next.
For more, see the Youth Service-Learning & Honor Flight Youth Guardians.