Eustis Lodge used a $2,500 Elks National Foundation Promise Grant and a $2,500 Elks National Foundation Gratitude Grant to provide more than 1,200 books (all stamped with “Donated by Eustis Elks Lodge”) to three elementary schools. This was the 11th year the lodge gave a dictionary to each of the third-graders at Treadway Elementary and the seventh year they gave a thesaurus to all their fourth-graders. Three years ago, they included Eustis Heights Elementary and at the same time added a novel for all fifth-graders which was written by a local author. A group of about 30 students from each school were chosen to meet the author and discuss her process for writing the book. The lodge also sponsored a writing contest to encourage more writing. For the past three summers, the lodge has used grant money to buy books for leisure reading for all summer-school students to encourage them to share the joy of reading with their parents and siblings. In the fall, they added students from Triangle Elementary to their book-giving program.