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Oglethorpe County residents George Gray (left) and Matt Chastain made a recruiting video for The American Legion’s Sons of The Legion that has been nationally distributed to other squadrons. The short lasts 2 minutes, 22 seconds. (Submitted Photo) -
George Gray (center) reenacts inviting Matt Chastain (right) to join the Sons of the American Legion in a recruitment video. Brit Brooks, playing the role of Jesse Collier, is on the left. (Submitted Photo) -
George Gray (left) shakes Matt Chastain's (right) hand as they reenact how they met for a recruitment video for the Sons of the American Legion. (Submitted Photo) -
Members of The American Legion Post 123 and the Sons of the American Legion pose outside for a recruitment video. The video was produced by Matt Chastain (fourth from left) and features Squadron Adjutant George Gray (far left). (Submitted Photo) -
Brit Brooks (left) and Matt Chastain (right) pose in front of The American Legion seal at Legion Post 123 in Lexington. Brooks and Chastain feature in a recruitment video for the Sons of the American Legion produced by Chastain. (Submitted Photo)
Sons of The American Legion - Matt's Story from The American Legion on Vimeo.
Two Oglethorpe County residents starred in a video produced for the Sons of The American Legion that has received national recognition.
Matt Chastain and George Gray of American Legion Post 123 in Lexington worked together on the short, which is 2 minutes, 22 seconds, and was published earlier this year to promote the Sons of The Legion. It tells the story of how Gray recruited Chastain, his neighbor, to the Sons of The Legion.
“It helps each squadron understand the mindset that’s required for proper membership recruitment,” Chastain said. “It’s also a good piece of content to recruit members like any other piece of social media content.”
The video, titled “Matt’s Story,” tells how Gray, then the HOA president for Lake Oglethorpe, where both men live, invited Chastain to join the SAL in 2020 at a neighborhood cookout.
“The story I tell,” Chastain said, “that’s true. I’d never met him before that. He walks up to me, introduces himself and immediately starts recruiting me to the Sons of The American Legion.”
Chastain, who owns a communications company called Chastain Creative, didn’t fill out the application Gray brought from his car, but the two met again at a karaoke event at The American Legion post, where Gray was “crooning an Elvis song.” Gray again tried to recruit Chastain, who accepted the invitation.
The short was presented at the SAL National Executive Committee to over 200 representatives from across the country earlier this month. It was also distributed to squadrons to be used nationwide.
“It’s been wildly successful,” Gray said. “We don’t know how many new members we’re getting in because of it yet because it’s just been rolled out, but it’s been accepted very well at the national level.”
Gray and Chastain came up with the idea of the video in 2021, when Chastain was visiting Gray to pay his membership dues.
“I said, ‘We’ve got to do something to help our ability to attract younger members,’” Gray said. “(Chastain) is a good storyteller and he’s quite talented at putting stuff together. So he said, ‘Why don’t we do a video?’”
Gray, Post 123’s squadron adjutant, pitched the idea to the SAL National Membership Committee. It commissioned Chastain to write and produce the video, which they shot last December.
“As it was described to me,” Gray said, “before that day, I had no speaking parts. At some point in time, (Chastain and a) young lady from (The American Legion National Headquarters) decided that I should have a speaking part. He fed me the lines.”
The Sons of The American Legion is an organization of male descendants of U.S. veterans. It aids The American Legion to improve the lives of veterans and their communities.
“The Sons of The American Legion are people like me, who never served, but have an ancestor who did,” Chastain said. “The Sons has a niche emphasis in recruiting youth to support veterans. Flag corps, teaching the youth about American heritage, that kind of thing.”