West Central District

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Written by Kara Suddards

On Jan. 23, Seminole Elks Lodge #2519 donated its Elks National Foundation Spotlight and Beacon grants along with the Florida State Elks’ matching Beacon Grant for a total of $9,000 to Santa's Angels charity in Indian Rocks, Florida. Wally Hawthorne is the founder of this organization that helps families at Christmas as well as throughout the year by providing food boxes, household supplies, and clothing and baby supplies. Hawthorne is a member of Holiday Isles Elks Lodge and was so grateful for this donation. Pictured with him is Kara Suddards, Exalted Ruler.

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Written by Holiday Isles Elks

Rhonda Smith, PER of Holiday Isles Lodge learned from Santa's Angels of Indian Rocks, Florida, that children 8 years old and younger experiencing homelessness were living with their parents in cars and other temporary locations due to the pandemic and needed toys and clothing for Christmas. These young ages were the main focus for the gift choices. The lodge gathered 469 toys along with baby clothes, diapers, wipes, blankets and backpacks valued at $4,690 and $2,745 in cash for a total value of $7,435 by Nov. 28. When Santa's Angels came to the lodge with their truck to pick up the donations, the amount of the donations was too large for the truck and they sent three SUVs Nov. 29 to pick up the rest. Pictured are Rhonda Smith, PER, project chair; Wally Hawthorne, Santa’s Angels vice president; and Mike Brown, Santa’s Angels president.

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Written by Rita Smith

For more than six years, Tampa Lodge has partnered with Open Arms Ministry and used its Elks National Foundation Beacon Grant to provide an early Sunday morning Thanksgiving dinner to community members experiencing homelessness. This year provided several challenges to accomplishing this, but the determination of Tampa Elks to help those in need powered them through to find a solution. First, the meals this year had to be picked up instead of sharing the meals together. Second, neither kitchen at the lodge or ministry was available to use the weekend before Thanksgiving. After a Zoom meeting between lodge members and their Open Arms partners, it was decided that instead of cooking, the Elks would provide each recipient a gift card to Publix which has a deli. Members purchased 85 Thanksgiving greeting cards and on Nov. 12, they wrote messages of support in each one. Third, the lodge had to close for two weeks due to COVID-19 cases which caused the delivery of the gift cards to fall through. The gift cards were eventually located and retrieved from the FedEx office just in time for them to be inserted in the greeting cards and distributed Nov. 29. “Our warm-hearted mother-daughter team, Courtney Weil, PER and Cristina Sanchez, were at the Open Arms Ministry by 7 a.m. on Sunday morning,” says Rita Smith, project manager. They handed each attendee a card as they signed in. Despite multiple obstacles, Tampa Elks persisted to make sure that those who needed a meal could still get one.

Pictured are Christina Sanchez and Courtney Weil, PER handing out the cards.

Betty Orcutt, Ladies of Elks President, and Sue Moore are pictured with personalized cards.

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Written by May Graci

On Nov. 9, St. Petersburg Lodge and its chef, John Bauer, hosted Boy Scout Troop 209. Twelve boys and four adult leaders were present. The scouts are currently working on their cooking merit badge. Requirements for this badge are health and safety, nutrition, cooking basics, cooking at home, camp cooking, and trail and backpacking meals. Bauer educated the boys on the proper way to prepare, cook and clean chicken and vegetables (onions, carrots and potatoes) with a sauce. Afterward, the boys sat down to dinner and enjoyed the meal they prepared. Pictured during the lesson are Boy Scouts Calvin Stroup, John Lampman and Thomas Orsoni.

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Written by May Graci

On Sept. 24, St. Petersburg Elks Lodge #1224 donated $2,000 from its Elks National Foundation Beacon Grant to the Kind Mouse Productions Inc., a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization based in St. Petersburg, Florida, that assists children in Pinellas County with food insecurities and chronic hunger. This is the lodge’s third donation to this organization because the lodge has an ongoing commitment to making it as easy as possible for Kind Mouse volunteers to get food to children impacted by the coronavirus pandemic. The Kind Mouse feeds children on weekends, but because of the pandemic, they have increased their services to a weekly basis which also sometimes includes food for the parents. Pictured are Dawn Elaine Lieber, PER, grant writer; Gina Wilkins, president and founder of The Kind Mouse; and Dan Masi, Leading Knight and liaison to The Kind Mouse.

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Written by May Graci

On Oct. 27, on behalf of St. Petersburg Elks Lodge #1224, lodge member Kat Chaplin visited the offices of Music Sweet Music Inc. (MSM) to deliver a quilt that she spent many hours making for MSM’s Facebook fundraiser. The handmade queen-size quilt valued at $379 featured a uniquely designed military-theme. In the center of the quilt was an eagle in flight looking at three soldiers. Each edge of the quilt named a military branch of service — Army, Air Force, Navy and Marines. Chaplin also donated a double-sided fleece throw for the silent auction fundraiser valued at $75. Pictured with Chaplin is Ted Wagner, lodge member and MSM president and founder Ted Wagner.