exalted ruler's MESSAGE

---

Well, it’s official. We are now officially in the Holiday Season, although some stores believe that Christmas Season begins in July. Happy Thanksgiving to you all, and I hope you can enjoy some fantastic food, some wonderful time with family, and reflect on all we have to be grateful for in our lives. Remember, as of November 1st, we only have 54 days of shopping left until Christmas. If you would like to see a list of the gifts that the Exalted Ruler would like, I will hang it in the Lodge. (Anything Green Bay Packers always works too).

I would like to give a quick rundown of the Mid-Year Convention. We had a successful convention and new State President Sue Krausman led her first convention as president. All reports were given, information was learned, and we even got out in a timely matter. For me the highlight of the convention evolved around AEMP. The Elks were able to make a $250,000 donation to the Steele Children’s Hospital and then made another $100,000 donation to their research Dept. We also had our “ER Walk” where the ER’s from every lodge in the state walk up the aisle to hand off checks to the AEMP directors. Our lodge was able to hand over a check for about $3500, thanks to all who worked hard on our Spaghetti Western and Winner, Winner Chicken Dinner Events. The total amount given by the lodges was right around $110,000. That is what hard-working Elks can do for our community and children of our community. We were also given some insight as to what our donations will be going to. The Steele Center was able to begin and get the equipment for Genome tracing, a very important way to trace and find cures/solutions to many diseases and abnormalities that occur. Our donations helped the Steele Center to be the first Institute in AZ to have these capabilities, saving patients weeks of time in obtaining results. A lot of fun was had with Elks that I have known for some time and some new friends were made.

It’s hard for me to believe that my year as the Exalted Ruler is over halfway done. I guess time flies when you are in constant distress. Just kidding about the constant part. The experience once again, has been a great one. I have learned much more about the Elks in the past 6 months than I had known in the past. The more you learn about this great organization, the more proud you become. We, as elks, do so much good for our communities that it is hard not to feel good about ourselves, and proud of our organization.

Wishing you all a terrific November, and welcome back to all of the snowbirds who have recently returned. If you are recently back to town, please stop by the lodge and say Hello. It is always good to welcome our traveling friends back. And don’t forget, we can always use some more volunteers with our many activities if you find that you have time available now that you are back.

Doug

Howdy!

Welcome to Fall! It sure is nice to have cooler mornings and evenings.

This month we had our mid-year convention for the AZ Elks association in Tempe. One of the best parts of the meeting, for me, is to hear of all the amazing charitable efforts that the Elks do across our state. Here are a few of the highlights:

• The AZ Elks gave out more than $183,000 in scholarships.

• Raised $15,000 for AEMP from the Grand Lodge Hospitality Suite in Austin, TX at the National Meeting.

• Hosted more than 800 kids at the Elks camp this year.

• Presented 2 checks totaling $350,000 to the Steele Research Foundation.

• The walk of lodges raised over $107,000 in donations to AEMP, including a check for $3422 from our lodge.

• Emily’s Heroes fund raised over $2,000 to battle pediatric cancer.

Lastly, one of the more incredible numbers was that last year the Elks across the country donated more than $500 Million in cash and in-kind donations, and the Grand Lodge estimates that is only about half of what was done last year.

I came away from the meeting more committed to our charitable efforts and want to thank everyone that volunteers at any of our events which raise the money we use to improve our community and support our Veterans and Children. If you have been wanting to get involved, there is so much more we can do with your help. Please consider volunteering in any of our many committees.

As always, if you have questions or concerns, you can always reach out to me via email (pslates1987@gmail.com) or phone (520.268.2375)

Take care,

paul

I want to thank Jack Baillargeon for filling in for me while we were on vacation in September. I hope he wasn’t too disappointed that we came home a little early. Thank You, Jack!

We have several fun events coming up in November as you will see on the calendar in the Bugle, however, if you are not current with your dues you will not be able to participate. Please get them in so you won’t miss out.

Wishing everyone a Happy Thanksgiving!! Hope you are spending it with friends and family.

LODGE STATS YEAR-TO-DATE

Membership to Date ............... 583 

Candidates................................. 4 

Delinquents ............................. 95 

Life Members ........................... 56 

Average Age ............................ 70

Something to think about:

“The bad news is time flies. The good news is you’re the pilot.

Michael Altshuler (author & motivational speaker)