Whenever a month has five Fridays, the Past Exalted Rulers of Merritt Island Elks Lodge #2650 put on a dinner. In May 2019, they invited the first responders of the Merritt Island area to join them for a spaghetti dinner. The attendance was pretty good for a first-time event. On Jan. 31, the lodge invited them again, but this year it was turned into a competition between the firefighters and deputy sheriffs for best turnout. Last year the deputies won. This year, 19 firefighters and 14 deputies attended, and the parking lot was filled with police cars, ambulances and fire trucks.