EXALTED RULER’S MESSAGE

---

It’s amazing that it is already November! The Holiday season is upon us once again along with the much anticipated cooler weather. Welcome back to all of our winter visitors and we hope that you will be coming down to the Lodge to participate in the many fun events that we have planned. 

Our Lodge held its annual Soccer Shoot on September 28th at James D. Kriegh Park and we had a great turnout. Thank you to all the volunteers that showed up bright and early and to Lisa Chavez who organized an outstanding event. The winners of our shoot will be participating in the District Soccer Shoot to be held October 27th at Jesse Owens Park so I hope to report next month that we have winners there going to the State Shoot. 

October always brings the Arizona Elks Association’s midyear convention in Tempe. I have always enjoyed attending these even when I am not required to. It is a great time to reconnect with fellow members from other Lodges that friendships have developed from throughout the years. Every convention, our Lodge hosts a hospitality room in the Exalted Ruler’s accommodations. This is always a fun time as fellow Elks from other Lodges will stop by and have a few laughs. The business sessions are usually quite interesting as you get a refresher course in many different areas of Elkdom by way of the State Chairman giving speeches. The final day is always the best. Dr Ghishan from the Steele Children’s Research Center gave an amazing speech about the importance of the Arizona Elks support of their research to help children with very deadly ailments. The Arizona Elks were able to present him with a $225,000 check to further their cutting edge medical advancements. This is one of the amazing programs that your Major Projects donations go towards making a difference. 

Our Drug Awareness Chairman, Neal Patronsky, has been working hard on the Drug Awareness Poster Contest with our local schools. We will be presenting the winners of three age groups with certificates on November 29th and their entries will be submitted to the District for judging at that level. What amazing talents these young ladies and gentlemen have. The Lodge contest winners will be honored at our Youth Week Awards ceremony in May. 

Our Lodge Officers will be performing a new ceremony for Veteran’s Day which is on November 11th. The ceremony will begin at 10 AM and we will have food afterwards. Please join us in honoring all of our Veterans from all Military Branches. 

Our final Dignitary visit for my Lodge year will be from District Deputy Grand Exalted Ruler David Dean and his Lady Vickie who are from Sierra Vista Lodge #2065. Prior to his arrival, we will be audited by Angela Buso from the Kearny Lodge #2478 on November 6th . I am confident that our team of experts will do an amazing job during this audit. DDGER Dave will be meeting with Lodge Officers and Committee Chairs on November 14th prior to the Lodge meeting to give them the opportunity to let him know what they have achieved so far this year. These meeting are always great because there is an opportunity to exchange ideas that benefit everyone. Later in the evening, we will be performing Initiation for him during our Lodge meeting. It will give our amazing Ritual team the chance to show our pride in what we do to impress incoming members. We look forward to this visit from these two amazing Elks and Friends. 

I hope you all have a very Happy Thanksgiving and are able to enjoy it with loved ones.  

Greetings fellow Elks all. It has been a busy month, and the next couple of months promise to be very enjoyable and fulfilling also! At our regular Lodge mtg., on the 10th., we were honored to have a special guest. Katie Murdoch, the Director of AEA Major Projects attended our meeting and presented our Lodge with a very special Certificate of Appreciation AND an Official Declaration into the Arizona Elks Major Projects Hall of Fame. This was only made possible as a direct result of the generosity and continuing support of our great members!! Thank you all Great Elks! 

That said, the Holidays are just around the corner. It’s time for us, as Elks, to focus on what we can do to help those less fortunate than us, right here in our own community. There are sign up sheets going up in the Lodge, notices in the Bugle, for all manner of help to assist those in need.  

ELKS CARE, ELKS SHARE  

We are Elks, this is what we do. 

 A quick reminder of our 7th Queen of Hearts game completed eight weeks ago. The final pot was $27,669. After the lodge deduction Ray had a total of $24,902 prior to tax deduction. For the total game $42,067 was paid out to all our weekly winners. Catalina Mountain collected $12,394 for charitable work, building maintenance and improvements. 

A big thank you to all our members who helped our lodge by playing the Queen of Hearts. The good news is we started game 8 and have a pot around $4,000+ presently. Please join us for our Friday night get together and cheering for our weekly winners. 

Some recent expenditures paid for by the PER’s are: $150 for Wreaths Across America, 25 $10 Walmart Gift cards for older children participating in some form at the Steele Children’s Research Center, $1,000 toward an expanded golf cart to carry wheelchair bound veterans at the Arizona Veterans Home and 10 $50 gift cards for Veterans transitioning to housing.  

Hello from the Secretary’s office, hope all are enjoying the cooler weather. This is the time of year I enjoy that I live in Arizona. 

I recently sent out “ Did you forget” letters to the members who have not paid their membership dues for this Lodge year. I am hoping that some did truly just forget. If you received one of these letters, please consider paying those dues. 

Last evening was Initiation night, wow we had 11 people to Initiated. Not a record for us, but is close. Please help me welcome these new members. They are: Robert and Gina Crawford, Cheryl and Lance Farrier, Urban Smith, Gilbert Hernandez, Bill Nagel, Loyd Cardell, Donna and Michael Raffanti and Gregory Davy. If you see any of these new members at the Lodge, introduce yourself and make them feel welcome. 

Lodge Stats 

Members 553 

Initiated 31 

Transfered out 7 

Affiliated 11 

Reinstatements 3 

Deaths 2 

In the works to become Members 7 

Delinquents 42 

Sig and I, along with others from our Lodge went to the Arizona State Convention this past weekend in Tempe. It was nice to see old friends and make a few new ones. It is always so informative to talk to other Elks and hear what is going on in the other Lodges in the state. If you have never to been to one of these conventions it is worth the time to see what happens at the State Level within the ELKs.