exalted ruler's MESSAGE

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Happy Holidays to everyone. November has proved to be a good month. Our Veterans Day Ceremony was well attended. Following the ceremony, we served more than 30 breakfasts to Veterans. Pictures are included in this issue along with pictures from Night Under the Stars. Roy Haddick, Arizona Elks Association Vice President North, attended Night Under the Stars along with his wife Marsha. Our breakfast meeting with Roy was also well attended. Roy also joined us on Friday, October 29th for the Queen of Hearts; he was very impressed with the generosity of our members. The Mud Girls received a $1,000 donation from Doug Harpold and auctioned a round of golf at the Dove Mountain Golf Club for another $1,000. Thank you all who donated to the Mud Girls; they raised more than $6,200 for the Veterans Committee.

On November 21st, a big crew of Elks met outside the Golden Goose and stuffed food bags for IMPACT of Southern Arizona. Jan Trudeau and Gloria Cisneros bought $2,000 worth of turkeys from an ENF Grant the Lodge received. None of our local stores let us order turkeys this year; however, over several weeks, Jan and Gloria slowly purchased all the turkeys needed. 

Our Elks Memorial Service will be held on Sunday, December 5th, in honor of our members who have passed. Typically we would honor those who have passed over the past year, but due to COVID, we will be honoring those who have passed over the last two years.

Planning for the Elks Hoop Shoot is underway. The shoot is a free-throw program for youth, ages 8 to 13. Shoots are held at Lodge, District, State, Region, and finally National levels. Winners are listed in the Basketball Hall of Fame. Our shoot will be held on December 18th with registration beginning at 8:00 am. The shoot will start at 9:00. The location is still to be determined as of this writing, but will either be in Catalina or in Oracle. Volunteers are needed and a sign-up sheet will be in the Lounge. Please contact Lisa Chavez or me with any questions.

Fundraising for the Children’s Shopping Spree is underway. Thank you to all who have donated to this endeavor. The generosity of our members is very impressive. Our event will be a little different this year due to COVID concerns. We will not be able to bring the children back to the Lodge, but we are still shopping! Instead of coming to the Lodge, the kids will receive a bag lunch and gift from Santa upon returning to the bus. Joyce Garcia, Shopping Spree Chair, still needs volunteers to help shop with the kids on December 8th at Walmart at 8:30 am. Joyce can be contacted at (520) 825-4176 for details. 

The House Committee is hosting a Secret Santa Christmas Party on December 4th. This is a very fun event, and all members are welcome to join us. In conjunction with the party, raffle tickets for 4 prizes are being sold to benefit the Children’s’ Shopping Spree. See Jan Trudeau’s article for more information.

The Lounge will close early on both Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve; hours are posted on the calendar. To wish everyone a Merry Christmas, Steve and I will be making roasted tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches all afternoon on Christmas Eve. Please join us. 

Have a wonderful Holiday Season,  Alane. 

Greetings all and Happy Holidays!  By the time this writing makes it to print Thanksgiving will have come and gone.  Many good things happened this month:  Stuff-a-bag at the Goose, many turkeys were bought and delivered, among other events.  I’m sure the committee chairs will provide all the details.  Don’t forget coming this month is the Children’s Shopping Spree for needy children.  This has traditionally been a major event for our Lodge, spearheaded by Joyce Garcia.  There’s a sign-up sheet in the Lounge for those who want to help escort the children or you can drop off a donation to the Lodge. Every little bit helps.

Also, I’m happy to say that our new Saturday night charity Dart Tournament has already raised more than $350 for our charities.  Thanks to Jim Roberts for getting this set up and going.

I’m going to sign off with wishing everyone happy and safe Holidays, and remember, a simple act of kindness can go a long way.

Thank you all, 

Monty,  phone: (520) 784-1883
mmderting@yahoo.com 

The PERA did not have a lot of activity last month. We did make a major donation to the Lodge Beautification Project. Many of you know that Lodges around the country have large bronze Elk statues adorning their buildings. Very soon, you are going to see an Elk in front of our Lodge. The PERA purchased the statue and will assist in the installation.

We did make a couple of small donations; every year the Arizona Elks Association’s Leather Committee asks all Lodges to donate $100 to their program rather than sending leather. This year the PERA provided this donation. We also bought ten wreaths in the Wreaths Across America program to the tune of $150. On December 18th, the program places wreaths on the graves of departed Veterans in cemeteries all across the country.

Our Queen of Hearts game is still going strong with a few small winners and one larger winner last month. The bingo ball chose another ace for the lucky member who won 10% of the pot and received a check for more than $1,100! As of this writing, the pot is still more than $9,000. Please note, we decided not to hold Queen of Hearts on Friday, December 24th and 31st, as it would conflict with Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve.

Steve Asp, PER