West Central District

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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.

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Written by Rita Smith

In October, red ribbons were passed out to Tampa Elks Lodge members to wear to promote Red Ribbon Month. The last week in October was Drug Awareness Week. Tampa Lodge #708 partnered with two elementary schools, Lanier Elementary and West Shore Elementary, to promote Red Ribbon Week and to give back to the community. Volunteers had not yet been approved to visit Tampa’s elementary schools, so the lodge gave each school 250 Drug Awareness coloring books to use while teaching the students to "Be a Hero and Say No to Drugs." Each school was also given 300 red ribbons to pass out to the students to wear during Red Ribbon Week. Pictured are Loyd “Tommy” Moore, Drug Awareness Chair, and Linda Drawdy, West Shore Elementary principal.

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Written by May Graci

To help give children the tools they need to succeed, St. Petersburg Lodge members donated school supplies including backpacks, pens and pencils, notebooks, crayons, handwriting paper, watercolors, colored pencils, glue sticks, scissors, highlighters, supply boxes, dividers, tissues, hand sanitizer, and sanitizing wipes. On Sept. 16, the supplies were distributed to three neighboring schools — Azalea Elementary School, Westgate Elementary School and Pinellas Park Middle School. Each school received over $250 worth of supplies for teachers and students. Pictured in the first photo are Yaritza Ramos, Azalea Elementary’s office liaison; Jan Giallourakis, lodge member; and Brian Denson, head of plant operations for Azalea Elementary. Pictured in the second photo are Susan Baker, Westgate Elementary’s community liaison, and Kirk Martin, Inner Guard. Doc Cook, Exalted Ruler and Pinellas Park Middle School science teacher, is pictured in his classroom.