Kansas Promenade Corporation Presents

Welcome our information page for the 108th Promenade Nationale and 64th Rendezvous Nationale to be held in Wichita in September 2027 and furthered again in September of 2028! We hope you enjoy engaging with us here and furthering our charitable and patriotic contributions to our community and this great nation. 

The Forty & Eight was founded in 1920 by American veterans returning from France. Originally an arm of The American Legion, the Forty & Eight became an independent and later a separately incorporated veteran's organization. Membership is by invitation only and is available only to honorably discharged veterans and honorably serving members of the United States Armed Forces. Our incredible support organziation, the La Femmes, were established in 1963 to build even more support for our great causes!

The titles and symbols of the Forty & Eight reflect its First World War origins. Americans were transported to the battle front on French trains within boxcars stenciled with a “40/8” symbol, denoting its capacity to hold either forty men or eight horses. This uncomfortable mode of transportation was familiar to all who fought in the trenches; a common small misery among American Soldiers who thereafter found “40/8” a lighthearted symbol of the deeper service, sacrifice, and unspoken horrors of war that bind all who have borne the battle. 

More information about our national organization can be found at www.fortyandeight.org. Further information on our state level organization can be found at www.ksfortyandeight.com/. Wichita area chapter information can be found at www.voiture58.org.