Florida Elks,

Happy New Year! I hope this letter finds you happy and well. 2024 was another great year to be a Florida Elk. Therapy Services has been helping more than 650 children a week, the summer camp brought in 2,317 campers for summer camp, our Extended Camp Leadership Program is in its fourth year of preparing former campers to be future summer camp staff, and youth rental groups continue to utilize the camp in record numbers.

As we begin the new year, I look forward to making this one even better. So, let’s get to it. We began registration for summer camp 2025 Dec. 1. Please be sure to get the word out to your members and community! Remember that the cost of sending a child to camp is $220 per week. Also, each lodge was assigned 10 scholarships for summer camp. These scholarships are provided through a grant from the Elks National Foundation. Each scholarship will cover a single camper for one week of camp (campers attending a two-week session would need two scholarships). If your lodge has questions about these scholarships, please reach out to your district’s director on the Youth Camp Board of Directors. You can utilize the state association website to find your District Director here, after you log in: floridaelks.org/officers-2024/florida-elks-youth-camp-inc-board-of-directors.

Please remember that each lodge can and should send more than 10 campers. If the camper’s family or your charity account can afford it, the cost, as mentioned above, is $220 per week per camper. If neither the camper’s family nor the lodge has the money, please send them anyway. We’ll find an Elk somewhere to cover the cost. Dates for this summer’s sessions are listed below. There is no cutoff date for registration, but as always, it will be first come, first served.

If you have any questions regarding the actual camper registration process, please contact our summer camp registrar, Jen Scott. You can reach her at jen@feyc.org or 352-431-8701 (text is great). One-week camp sessions for this summer are as follows:

Week 1 June 8-14
Week 2 June 15-21
Week 3 June 22-28
Week 4 June 29 - July 5
Week 5 July 6-12
Week 6 July 13-19
*Week 7 July 20-26

*Military Week: Dependents of
veterans and/or active military attend
at no cost to them!

As for two-week sessions, we will again be offering three two-week sessions for our oldest campers. These sessions allow for check-in Sunday and checkout 13 days later. These sessions will allow for much more in-depth programming, and these campers will get the chance to participate in activities for which single-week sessions just don’t have time. Currently, these sessions are only available to our oldest campers.

Registration is available through the website, just like one-week sessions, and with only 42 spots available in each session, they will fill up even faster than our one-week sessions. Two-week sessions will run during:

Week 2 – Week 3
Week 4 – Week 5
Week 6 – Week 7

The cost is simply double that of a single week. So, one-week sessions are $220, and two-week sessions are $440. As always, check with your District Director from the FEYC Board of Directors if you need more info, and if they can’t help, contact Jen.

Also, because our registration is completely online, some families may struggle getting access to a computer or to the internet. If you know of families in this situation, please invite them to the lodge, a local library or their school’s media center. Have a volunteer sit with them and work through the application. As with the rest, if you have questions or concerns, email Jen. She’s incredible at helping those who are less tech-savvy navigate the process.

Finally, beyond summer camp, we are still incredibly busy at FEYC. We had our New Year’s Eve party at the end of December and we have the February quarterly at the camp Feb. 6-8. Please go to floridaelks.org for more information.

This year, I recommend coming to the quarterly for at least some of the meetings, even if you don’t plan to stay with us at the camp. The Grand Exalted Ruler will be here and speaking on that Saturday, but it will also be your last chance to say goodbye to an icon of the Florida Elks. In case you haven’t heard, our FSEA Chief Operating Officer and State Secretary, Carl Seibert, has been selected as the next Grand Secretary for the Grand Lodge. So, be sure to come to the camp to congratulate him and wish him well on the next leg of his incredible journey with the Elks!

As always, I thank you for the honor of serving as your Youth Camp Director, and I thank you for all you do as Elks. Happy New Year, and we hope to see you at camp!