On Feb. 4, Orlando Elks Lodge #1079 presented a $500 donation to Salome Piedrahita for family financial assistance. Piedrahita, who was born in Colombia, South America, is a 22-year-old nursing student at the University of Central Florida. She also works full-time and is the guardian of her 11-year-old twin siblings, Maria and Nicolas Delarosa, who are diabetic. Maria and Nicholas were born in New York like their father, Jose Delarosa. These three siblings have lost both of their parents. Their mother passed away in 2015 and their father (Piedrahita’s stepfather) passed away in April 2021. An aunt from New York wanted to take the children, but Piedrahita refused. With the help of her school advisors, she obtained full custody of her siblings. She admits it has been difficult raising the children without her parents, but she is working hard to provide a happy home.
In November 2020, lodge member Carmen Rivera invited the family to the lodge to pick up a fully cooked Thanksgiving dinner. In October 2021, Maria won third place in the lodge Drug Awareness poster contest. Rivera said that when Maria received the monetary award, she said she was going to buy groceries with the money. “It almost broke my heart and I told her to keep the money to buy something nice for herself. I spoke to Salome and told her to have the children take home groceries after school from the food bank at Waterford Elementary School. The Orlando Elks bingo volunteers and players donate food and school supplies that go directly to several schools in our community, including Waterford Elementary,” said Rivera.
In the summer of 2022, the lodge sponsored Nicholas and Maria to summer camp at the Florida Elks Youth Camp. Salome said that "it was a great opportunity for the children to be outdoors, meet new friends and get out of their small apartment." She hopes that the children will be able to attend this summer, and if so, the lodge will sponsor them again.
Rivera added that “all in all, Salome doesn't have a family here in Orlando but she has us. Orlando Elks Lodge #1079 is proud and honored to help this young family by applying our principles of charity, brotherly love and fidelity….it really does take a village to raise a child.”
Pictured are Nicholas Delarosa; Salome Piedrahita; Donna Hoffman, Exalted Ruler; Maria Delarosa; and Carmen Rivera, lodge trustee.