Archive for January, 2012

It’s crazy, the holidays are over and it’s almost February! The one thing I’ve learned over my 40 years is that change is constant. No matter what or where you are in life, change is constant. I dunno, maybe I’m getting philosophical in my old age! Our Lodge is no exception. I’ve seen a lot of change in my short time as a member and officer. The amazing thing about change at our Lodge is that the generosity of our membership is what drives the change.

During this time, I have seen our Flag Committee make sure our Nation’s Flag is displayed with honor around our Lodge. The generosity of our RV Club, Bowling Club, and Elks’ Ladies improves our building and grounds, and makes sizable donations to our charities. All of our committee chairs see that our events are done to the best of their ability. The Building and Maintenance Committee does their work each and every week to ensure our Lodge looks its best. I would like to thank The RV Club and Claudia Jenkins for putting up and taking down all our Christmas decorations. This is something Claudia has spearheaded for 8+ years now. The RVer’s also replaced the interior lights with LCD lights at their own expense. If you look around that is a great deal of lights and cost. THANK YOU again! The Officers and Trustees are making sizable donations of time to see that our bar is renovated, giving money to our charities from their own pockets, and helping our Lodge meet the State and Grand Lodge goals. The items like our Elk out front and the wood for our bar that improve the look of our facility come from our members. I know I’ve only brushed over a few areas but my point is this: without our membership’s willingness to volunteer, these changes would never happen. The Lodge we see today is a symbol of great history, pride and vision that our Brothers and Sisters before us created.

We are entrusted by our Brothers and Sisters before us to ensure this Lodge’s success. I’ve learned that there is no one person, committee or club within our organization that does this alone. We all share a role as members for the greater good and success of our order. This is one of the many reasons I’m proud to say that I’m an Elk! In showing our respect and gratitude to our tenured members, please make a point to attend Wednesday, February 8th, for our Old Timer’s/PER’s night. There will be a presentation of pins to our members with significant years of membership. The fun part is watching our PER’S get roasted, ugh…I mean run a meeting.

It is my pleasure to formally introduce our new Lodge Manager, Dan Valdez. He has been with us for several years and has demonstrated his proficiency in running Manzanita Place and our Lodge. Dan knows our facility, our town and what is needed to make sure our facility runs effectively . Our Lodge is fortunate to have Dan at its helm! I wish everybody a safe, happy, healthy and prosperous New Year. Propose a member, or if you have proposed a member and don’t see them around much, call them, get them involved again so they see the changes we are consistently making. Hope to see you around the Lodge soon!

Hello again, this is my first letter of 2012.
The term has sure gone fast! It doesn’t seem
that long ago when we were practicing for rit-
ual. We had some challenges this year, as we
have made great strides in our Lodge and the
community.
I would like to thank a few people for
their contributions to our Lodge and the com-
munity: Rhys Severe is our Youth Activities
Chairman. We had a vey successful soccer
shoot and just recently our Hoop Shoot! This
was held at PV High School on Sunday, De-
cember 18. The winners will get to compete in
the District Competition. Thank you again to
Rhys, Norm & Betty Stump, Rick & Kim
Schmid, Terry Horne, Gus & Mary Borchers,
Joe Lusher, Matt Goddard and many others.
I would also like to thank Kim Thorpe for
another amazing Children’s Christmas Party. Kim organized, set-up, purchased and wrapped
over 190 gifts, and held the best Children’s
Christmas party so far! We were able to pro-
vide over 70 children from the community with
activities, gifts and lunch. To top it all off,
Santa Claus was able to attend. The children
got to tell him what they wanted and got a pic-
ture with Santa Claus. There were many people
who helped set up the day. Thank you to Matt
& Jen Goddard, Norm & Betty Stump, Brian &
Jenny Artzen, the Patterson family, my lovely
wife, Victoria. I think I even saw our District
Deputy Wade Thorpe there! It’s a great charity
event our members and their kids get to share
with our community.
Well, I hope to see you all at the New
Year’s Eve party and remember to invite
friends and family who are not Elks to come
and see what we are about, because it’s amazing!