Operation Show & Tell
- Todd McKinley
- Jan 22
- 2 min read
What exactly is "Operation Show & Tell," you maybe asking. Well, give me a few moments of your time and I'll explain. Now mind you, for this idea to bear fruit for the American Legion on a national level, it requires buy-in from everyone in all 55 departments. What I'm asking for are willing members across the entire Legion Family (Sons of the American Legion & Legion Auxiliary) to be willing to openly use social media (or your own website) to share & promote the American Legion by telling stories through Operation Show & Tell. I'm sure everyone remembers this activity in Kindergarten. BTW, I received an "E" for Excellence in Show & Tell and I'm sticking to that story.
Operation Show & Tell
I'm urging everyone in the Legion Family and Veteran community (every community is a Veteran community) to post a video or go live on social media and discuss an item you treasure (preferably Legion related) and tell a story with it, such as where did you get or "acquire it," what does it mean to you and how does it make you feel.
Example: Take a Legion cap for example, it could be related to an office you hold/held, or Post/Department you belonged to and why it's important to you. You can really show off anything you have, a car, challenge coin, Army helmet, award or whatever and tell a story. In the video, add in why you joined the Legion Family, and yes, this is a backdoor "why" video project.
I'm urging everyone to use the following hashtag #myamericanlegion and #LegionFamily across all platforms and promote camaraderie in our communities, after all strong communities are the foundation of strong states and strong states make a strong nation. You can make these stories fun and lighthearted or you can be serious, but let's keep it PG. Also, please be sure to promote membership in these endeavors by sharing the link below. You may also use any other hashtag such #BeTheOne or whatever you think applies, just be sure to promote Legion Family, encourage membership and of course have fun.
“VOLS: Veterans Offering Lifelong Service”
Todd A. McKinley
Department Commander
American Legion Department of Tennessee
