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 motivating and mobilizing students to service learning. In support of New York State’s Seal of Civic Readiness Program and school curriculum strategies, National Service Ride Project presentations help students understand the "what" and "why" of service, increasing their likelihood to do community service for personal growth, mental and social resilience, and academic and economic 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 can track and certify service-learning hours, produce certificates, and even write resumes!
For more, download our one-pager and our project briefing.
Honor Flight Youth Guardians
Since the spring of 2024, The National Service Ride Project, along with the Orange County American Legion and Legion Riders, is helping the Hudson Valley Honor Flight 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 also intended to help the passing of the baton of leadership from one generation of Americans to the next.
For more, see the Youth Guardian fact sheet or program memorandum.