This week the Reno-Sparks Convention Center is swarming with veterans young and old: 9,000 members of the American Legion in town for their national convention.
The American Legion has roughly two million members nationwide, and they work all year to provide support services for veterans when government services drop off.
"The Veterans Administration and the government are only going to do so much for these guys, and they deserve so much more," American Legion Member John Rupe said. "Sometimes [the work] is life-changing."
The American Legion funds programs to help vets get jobs, find homes and furnish them, feed their children, and pay for their college if they lose a military parent.
"Taking care of your buddies," Charles Schmidt, the American Legion National Commander, called it. "In the military, we always take care of our buddies, and our buddies take care of us, in wartime and peacetime."
Sometimes that means lobbying on their behalf. The group also has representatives in DC working to pass policies that help veterans.
"There's strength in numbers," American Legion member Victor Moss said, "and with the power of the membership, when our representatives in Washington talk to Congress, they listen, because they represent two million members."
The 2017 American Legion National Convention runs through August 24th. To learn more about the organization, click here.
