Lewiston Elks Participate in National Night Out 

On August 4, 2009, members of the Lewiston Elks Lodge #371 attended the City of Lewiston's annual National Night Out at Kennedy Park. The event ran for two hours, during which, over 350 bags of Elk Drug Awareness materials were handed out to children in the community. The city holds the event in an effort to reduce crime, promote neighborhood spirit and cooperation, and increase drug awareness among the children and families in the community.
 
Members of the Lewiston Elks Lodge were kept very busy during the entire event, as several hundred children swarmed the table, all looking to obtain a goodie bag. The Maine Elks Association Drug Awareness trailer  came in very handy, as it allowed the volunteers a place to store their drug awareness items. The children each received a bag with a Ruler, Pencil, Gum, a Coloring Book, Crayons, and Drug Awareness literature.  Elroy the Elk was also present to entertain the children with his antics. Working the event were Drug Awareness Chairman Doug Stone, Americanism Chairman Gail Charpentier, and Public Relations Chairman Wayne Cotterly.
 
National Night Out events are held across the country, and the event has been in existence since 1984. The event has grown to involve over 34 Million people in 10,000 communities nationwide.
 
The Elks Drug Awareness program was introduced in 1984, and distributes literature and organizes events to make kids and their parents aware of the dangers posed by alcohol, tobacco and illegal drugs. Funding for the program comes from the Elks National Foundation.

Pictured above are Drug Awareness Chairman Doug Stone and Americanism Chairman Gail Charpentier handing out a Drug Awareness packet to a unidentified Somali girl.

Reporter Finds Out That the Elks are not just a Lounge

From the GL Government Relations Newsletter

During the Grand Lodge convention in Portland, a reporter from The Oregonian decided to learn about the Order and was overwhelmed with historical facts and the "big things" about the Elks-"the donations of more than $200 million a year to veterans, the poor,
the sick, those with disabilities, those who have suffered disaster or calamity, that the Elks are
one of the largest providers of scholarships in the country, that they sponsor soccer and basketball contests and drug awareness programs."

But as Inara Verzemnieks discovered, the big things are too abstract. "The big things, the numbers and figures-there's only so much they can tell you," she wrote. "They don't tell you why. Only people can reveal the why."

And, in what may be one of the best stories ever written about the Elks, she explored the "why" of the Elks after talking with members from around the country who visited Beaverton Lodge No.1989 after the day's business at the convention.

She discovered that "far from home, even a strange lodge is instantly familiar." And she noted the frustration many Elks experience when all outsiders seem to want to talk about are the lounges, the cheap drinks, the mysterious rituals, and the retro appeal.

But as Verzemnieks talked with dozens of Elks, she learned that the organization is not about the lounge. She ran out of paper listing the myriad volunteer activities and had to flip her notebook around to write on the backs of the used pages. And she started to feel that Elks shouldn't have to apologize if they wanted to come to the lodge for a couple of drinks. "They certainly seem to have more than earned that right," she wrote. "No explanation necessary."

Her article recounts the origin of the Elks as a drinking club, the Jolly Corks, and how it evolved into a benevolent order, with members taking care of each other and their families.

She wrote that it all seems worth telling because there is something about that transition that gets at the why of it all. Many members said they came to the bar and just fell in love with the place, but talking about good works, relationships and connections got increasingly complex.

Gary Kniss, a fire and rescue captain, told her he had a different relationship with his colleagues at the firehouse. At the lodge, he says, he gets a social-service sense of duty and doesn't feel alone.

"When people die here, you are remembered," he added. "We laugh and joke about you; we talk about you years later."

"Over and over again," Verzemnieks wrote, "people tell me with such earnestness that this feels like family to them-the woman who joined after she moved here following her husband's death, the man who says the day after his dad died, he 'walked into the lodge, and somehow everyone knew', another woman who tells me she met the man she married a year and a half ago now at a national convention."

Toward the end of the evening, the reporter runs into Kniss again, and he takes her outside to see the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. The first such memorial in the state, it was erected to honor the son of one of the lodge members, a young marine who had planned to join the lodge but was killed just days before he was scheduled to return home.
Kniss tells her he has a particular pull toward this memorial and one of the reasons he joined this lodge was to help take care of it. Kniss noted that it was dedicated in 1968, but he was gone at the time. "I ask him where he was," wrote Verzemnieks. "He looks at me in the growing dark for what feels like a long time before he speaks. "'Vietnam,' he says."

Elks Training Program 

The new Elks Training Program for 2009-2010 is now available for anyone who wishes to learn more about the our Order.

This year, there are 30 True/False questions that are even more thought provoking than before, and I encourage everyone to take an hour or so to complete the program.

This is an open book test, and its purpose is to encourage members to learn more about our rules and regulations. It can be be quite interesting, and can provoke discussion among your fellow members about how the organization works.

As training chairman for the Maine Elks Association, I've set the goal of having 100% participation by all Lodges in the state.

At the Grand Lodge Convention, each Exalted Ruler, State President, State Secretary, and District Deputy received a copy of the exam, and each Lodge's Training Chairman will soon receive a copy as well.

I ask that ALL State Officers, State Committeemen, Lodge Officers, and Lodge Committeemen participate in the program at a minimum, but all members of the Order are welcome to participate.

You can go it alone, and take the exam when you have the time, or your Lodge Training Chairman or Exalted Ruler can set a time for everyone to take the exam at once.

But why wait? You can download your own copy of the exam, and get started on it right away.

Download a copy of the exam here.

In order to take the exam, you will need the following manuals, which are available from your Lodge secretary. These include the:

• Statutes Annotated 2008
• Lodge Activities Manual
• Membership Program and Planning Manual
• Auditing, Accounting, and Management Manual
• Manual on Protocol
• Regular Ritual Manual (Revised 8/2007)

Once you complete the exam, please send your results to:

Wayne Cotterly
MEA Training Chairman
282 Maine Street

Poland Spring, ME 04274

If you have less than 5 errors on your exam, you will receive a Grand Exalted Ruler's Citation, suitable for framing.

All exams must be completed, and submitted to me by March 15, 2009 at the latest.

If you should have any questions about the program, please feel free to contact me at meapr@fairpoint.net.

Wayne Cotterly
Training Chairman
Maine Elks Association

If you have news or information of interest to the members of the Maine Elks Association, please send your articles to Public Relations Director Wayne Cotterly at meapr@fairpoint.net for inclusion in the MEA Calendar, the MEA Website, or future issues of this newsletter.

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