Each month, Ann Smith, Fort Pierce Elks Lodge #1520 Leading Knight, mails packages of gifts and snacks to American military members overseas. The items she sends come from lodge members and lodge funds. On special holidays, she asks members to sign cards and includes them in the packages to brighten their holiday.
Fort Pierce Lodge member Rod Dally, PER, a 53-year Elk and Purple Heart recipient, and his wife, Beverly, also a lodge member, deliver gifts, snacks, lap robes and hygiene kits every month to the VA hospital in West Palm Beach, Florida, for the patients and veterans who are experiencing homelessness. The VA hospital recently requested some can openers, so using lodge funds and member donations, Dally purchased them and delivered them on his monthly trip. Dally also made contact with the coordinator at the new VA hospital in Tradition in St. Lucie County, where lodge members will be helping them. He anticipates lodge members going to visit with the patients and brightening their day.
Each first Wednesday of the month, Fort Pierce Lodge donates proceeds from one of its bar games to the lodge veterans account. These funds are used for projects such as the packages sent overseas for military members and items purchased for the West Palm Beach VA Hospital.
Fort Pierce Lodge members recently recorded a video for the Re-Creation video project, which will send recorded messages of thanks to veterans in veterans’ homes and hospitals nationwide.