West Central District

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Written by May Graci

St. Petersburg Elks Lodge #1224 had a dozen singing Valentine llama stuffed animals that they held back from the holiday Walgreens toy drive that they donated to the Salvation Army that were distributed to young children in their foster care homes Feb. 14 along with an assortment of Valentine sweets.

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Written by Rita Smith

For the 2020 Walgreens-Elks Community Gift Drive, Tampa Elks Lodge #708 collected toys from 15 stores Dec. 15. Laura Jones, Jeremy Elkins, Christien Elkins, PER Shelagh Gombarcik, Paul Deland, Wendy Hall, Tommy Moore and Rita Smith all participated in the pickups. By the end of the day, Youth Activities Chairs, Patty and Mike Volpe, had counted 924 toys. This was in addition to the dozens of toys Tampa Elks had donated. The Youth Activities Committee was overjoyed because they had many families that had asked for help. The Volpes developed a COVID-safe plan. On Dec. 19-20, the toys were displayed in the lodge room from noon until 8 p.m. Four families per hour were preregistered to come Christmas shop for their kids. They were not permitted to bring the children with them, but instead were each allowed to pick out three gifts plus a stocking stuffer for each of the children they had registered. Then, they were able to wrap the gifts right there with supplies donated by Elks and then load them into their car in an opaque bag. When done, the lodge had provided a good Christmas for 68 families with a combined 253 children. They did this with minimal staffing: the Volpes, Richelle Nickell, PER Shelagh Gombarcik, Candi Suhrheinrich, Evan Watts (Legacy Scholarship winner), two high school volunteers from the lodge-sponsored Club Chivalry, and non-Elk helpers Heidi and Paul and Theresa Bravo. There were still a couple hundred toys left Sunday night. Rita Smith and Bonnie Atwood gathered 80 toys to take to the Christmas tent run by Metropolitan Ministries, one of Tampa’s largest charities for families with children.

Pictured are:

PER Shelagh Gombarcik unloading gifts

Happy mother selecting gifts

Two ladies wrapping gifts

 Patty Volpe handling paperwork

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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.