Fort Dearborn Post 364
LEGION RIDERS
The American Legion Riders
Meeting's every 4th Monday at 7 PM.
2026 Officers
Director...Mike Cardosi
Asst Director...Chris Phillips
Treasurer...Jim Pipitone
Secretary...Phil Smith
Run Coordinator...Rob Ferns (Moose)
Membership...Matt Klann
Judge Advocate...Ron Costello
Sgt At Arms...Dan Munroe
Chaplain...Tommy Meehan
Historian...Gary Pichini (Grizz)
Storekeeper...Roy Koenig
Quote Of The Moment...
Riding faster than everyone else only guarantees you'll ride alone.
A $50,000 head needs a $50,000 helmet. A $10 Head.....
Meeting Minutes
ALR Meeting Summary from Aug 24th 2026
Director Mike Cardosi called the meeting to order at 7:00. There was a total of 22 members signed in. Plus we had 3 guests, Pat Koenig, Commander Janet Montoya and Adjunct Frank Montoya. A Roll-call of officers had all officers present other than Moose our Run Coordinator who was excused.
Sick Call and Relief: Mike Haykus announced that his bride to be has lung cancer.
Review of Meeting Minutes: Motion to accept minutes with corrections made by Mike Haykus and seconded be Jim Crawford. Passed.
Membership Report: Same as last month. We have 66 members plus 8 In Memoriam.
Run Coordinator:
Sat Aug 29th is Hawgs and Dawgs at Trenton 3:00 - ???
Sun Aug 30th is the SAL BBQ at our Post from 3-7. $20 for BBQ & sides.
Fri Sep 11th is Bike Night at Garden City 5:00 – 8:00
Hog Heaven will be Sat Sep 12th
Sat Sep 26th is our last Bike Night of the year (if we keep it)
Officer Reports: None
Old Business:
Earlier this month we escorted “The Wall That Heals” from Monroe to Taylor. Our original plan was to leave Dearborn at 11 to get to Monroe by 12. But then 2 days before the event they changed the time they wanted us in Monroe to be 11. So we switched our KSU time to 10 and sent out an updated text. However Chef Mike and Moose didn’t get that text. Fortunately Mike checked his phone and saw a text from Moose saying where is everybody? Mike told them to head straight down to the Meijers in Monroe. Fortunately they made it in time. It was a good crowd. They probably had about 200 - 300 bikes.
This past Sat we were supposed to have our 4th Bike Night, however it got cancelled due to rain.
The VVA Golf Outing which was scheduled for the following Sunday, got cancelled due to not enough teams being signed up. Since the golf outing was cancelled, we were able to go on Ron’s Union Bike Ride which went from Detroit to Howell. It was $25 to sign up and they gave you a T-shirt and provided a meal when we reached Howell. About 100 bikes attended.
New Business:
Our Guest Pat Koenig from the Dearborn Heights Rotary spoke about their upcoming golf outing. It’s a fundraiser to help veterans with PTSD and suicide awareness. Dan Ryder made a motion to donate $500 to sponsor a hole at their golf outing, seconded by Al Tajak. PASSED. Jim mentioned that with our donation we are allowed to have a foursome in the golf outing. The outing will be on Sun Sep 20th at Inkster Valley. Roy Koenig said he would ask the membership to find out who’s interested in golfing and then we could draw names to see who gets to go.
This Fri the 28th our Auxiliary is having a Blood Drive at our Post. Hours are from Noon to 4. They would prefer that doners preregister to get a time slot, however they will not turn away walk-ins.
Then on Sun the 30th our SAL is putting on a BBQ. It will be from 3-7. Meal is $20 and includes BBQ and all the sides.
Next we discussed our upcoming Hog Heaven event.
Weasel, our committee chairman for planning the Joe Stumpo Fun Run, spoke about 2 different routes the committee was considering. The 1st was a southern route and went to Micks, Wyandotte, Trenton and Riverview before returning to Dearborn. The 2nd was a northern route and went to Garden City, Livonia and Farmington Hills before returning to Dearborn. There was much discussion and we decided to take a vote to choose. With a show of hands the southern route won by 8 – 5. So the committee will fine tune the route but anyone is welcome to help out, just attend a planning session. Besides putting the route together they’ll also make the question sheet and have maps and questionnaires ready for Hog Heaven.
Registration for the Fun Run will start at 11am so workers should get there about 10am to get things set-up. Jim and Al will work the table to get everyone registered and record their poker hand when they return.
Jim will bring the seed money. Cost is $20/Rider and $15/Passenger.
Phil Smith will provide the Hold Harmless agreements.
Janet will provide the wrist bands for Hog Heaven admittance.
The committee will provide the Directions and Questionnaire.
Phil Smith will have the Year Patches.
It was suggested to bring some painters tape so riders could tape the directions onto their tank. And we should also tape the listing of poker hand rankings onto the table.
At the last events meeting, each of the Families got assigned to provide one of the sides for the meal. The Riders got assigned Baked Beans. We’ll have to provide beans to cover about 60-70 people. Chef Mike is managing that and fortunately his wife-to-be has a secret recipe for baked beans.
They are still looking for items to fill the raffle baskets. They could use more liquor for the liquor basket but they have enough wine. Also, there will be a classic car and bike show at Hog Heaven, so ask your friends with classic cars and bikes to bring them and show them off! There are sign-up sheets on the bulletin board to volunteer to sell raffle tickets at various events for Hog Heaven. Please sell raffle tickets.
On Fri Sep 18th there will be a National POW/MIA Recognition Day ceremony at 6:00 p.m. at Oakland Hills Memorial Gardens. We will meet at our Post at 4:30 with KSU @ 5pm to head over there. Oakland Hills Memorial Gardens is at the corner of 12 Mile Rd. & Novi Rd. in Novi, Michigan. The ceremony starts at 6:00 p.m.
Also at the Bova Post on Hix Rd just north of Ford Rd. they will also be having a POW/MIA ceremony.
Our next Bike Nite was scheduled to be on Sat Sep 26th. However the hall was rented for a wedding, so we are moving our Bike Nite ahead to Sat Sep 19th from 5 – 8. We’ll need to update the flyers and post it online.
Our Next Meeting will be Mon Sep 28th.
For the good of the Legion Riders
Chris mentioned that the daughter of an old classmate started a foundation a few years ago to help disabled veterans. They’ve gotten the support of the Lions and also Carrier HVAC. They are looking for Disabled vets in need of a new Furnace or Air Conditioner. If you know of anybody, let Chris know.
They are also looking for Disabled Vets that they can do days-of-service for. For example, yard work, or tree trimming, or shoveling, etc. If you know anybody that needs help with services around the house, again let Chris know.
Meeting adjourned at 7:40