Maine Elks Association

Public Relations Committee Newsbriefs -09/20/07

Maine Elks Association Newsbriefs

Maine Elks Ritual Team Wins Area 1 Ritual Contest for 7^th Straight Year



Having retired two trophies over the past six years, the Maine Elks Association Ritual Team continued their domination of the Area I Interstate-Relations Ritual Roulette Championships by winning again this year. The event was held in Vermont on September 16, 2007 at the Burlington Elks Lodge #916. The purpose of the contest was to promote excellence in the performance of the Elks initiation ritual, and to foster better relations among the State Elks Associations.

Four teams from across New England and New York competed in this unique event, which involves four of the Lodge’s seven officers drawing for their ritual parts only 5 minutes before their team competes. This is extraordinarily difficult, as those four officers must memorize all four parts, including the position of Exalted Ruler, Leading Knight, Loyal Knight, and Lecturing Knight positions.

Once the four chair officers are determined, the team must perform before several judges, who evaluate them on Impressiveness, Pronunciation, Word Accuracy, Deportment (movements), and Appearance. Deductions are made for each mistake, starting with a perfect score of 100 points and working downward.

Earning recognition as Area I Champions are: Exalted Ruler John Hill Jr. (Biddeford-Saco Elks), Leading Knight: Wayne Cotterly (Lewiston Elks), Loyal Knight: Robert Drisko (Augusta Elks), Lecturing Knight: Rick Williams (Biddeford-Saco Elks), Esquire: Christine Cote (Sanford Elks), Chaplain: Floyd Howes (Biddeford-Saco Elks), Inner Guard: Debbie Hamblen (Portland Elks), Candidate: Gail Howes (Biddeford-Saco Elks), and Coaches: Harry Desjardins (Biddeford-Saco), Frank Ricker (Sanford) and Phil O'Brion (Farmington).

In addition to winning the overall team competition, several individual awards were earned as well. These awards were presented to: John Hill Jr., Wayne Cotterly, Robert Drisko, Rick Williams, and Floyd Howes for achieving the highest scores in their respective positions above.

Pictured above are (L-R): Coach Frank Ricker, Candidate Gail Howes, Area 1 Tiler Daniel Cashman, Inner Guard Debbie Hamblen, Lecturing Knight Rick Williams, Exalted Ruler John Hill Jr., Leading Knight Wayne Cotterly, Loyal Knight Robert Drisko, Chaplain Floyd Howes, Esquire Christine Cote, and Coach Harry Desjardins.

Elks National Foundation to Award $2.296 Million in Scholarships

Chicago, IL -- September 10, 2007 – With the average annual cost of private four-year institutions reaching $22,218* and 52 percent of adults naming rising tuition and other costs as the biggest problem facing colleges and universities today**, the Elks National Foundation’s Most Valuable Student scholarship contest will make the dream of a college education a reality for 500 high school seniors in 2008. The Elks National Foundation kicked off the contest on September 1, 2007. This year, the Foundation added more top awards to the Most Valuable Student scholarship program. Applicants will compete for top awards ranging from $8,000 over four years to $60,000 over four years. The remaining 482 runners-up will receive scholarships of $4,000 over four years.

Any high school senior who is a citizen of the United States is eligible to apply. Applicants do not need to be related to a member of the Elks. Males and females compete separately, and are judged on scholarship, leadership and financial need.

Applications for the 2008 contest are available at Elks Lodges, local high schools, for download at www.elks.org/enf/scholars, or by sending a self-addressed, stamped envelope to the Elks National Foundation, 2750 N. Lakeview Ave., Chicago, IL 60614-2256.

Completed applications must be turned in to the applicant’s nearest Elks Lodge, no later than the January 11, 2008, contest deadline. To find your sponsoring Elks Lodge, check your phone book or search online at www.elks.org/lodges. Applicants must advance through local, district and state competition to reach the national contest. The 500 national winners will be announced mid-May 2008.

If you are one of the millions of parents or students facing a looming financial need for higher education, visit your local Lodge, or contact your local high school regarding the MVS scholarship contest. You could end up like last year’s top winners, Cort VanOstran from Joplin, Missouri, who is attending Harvard or Alice Chaung from Orange, California, who is attending Brown. Their MVS scholarships are helping to make their dreams realities and their goals attainable.

Tens of thousands of outstanding high school seniors will compete for this year’s scholarships through the Elks National Foundation’s MVS scholarship contest. All eligible high school seniors are encouraged to apply because in addition to the 500 national winners many local Elks Lodges and state Elks associations award their own scholarships. Visit www.elks.org/enf/scholars for complete contest details.

Five Local Champs Crowned at the Sebasticook Valley Lodge's "Soccer Shoot" 

by Don Dow - MEA Public Relations Northern District 

Front L to R:  Alyssa W. , Ethan V. 

Back L to R:  Kael M. , Dylan W.  , Lodge President Spencer Havey, PER, Hillary M. 

On September 16, 2007, young soccer stars proved their mettle at Manson Park in Pittsfield, and at the end of the competition, five of them won an Elks "Soccer Shoot" Championship title.  As local champions, these youths, age 14 and under, will advance to the district contest (to be held at University of Maine at Presque Isle on September 30^th at 11 am), where they will then vie for the opportunity to advance to the State contest and quite possible capture even more honors.   The State Contest will be held in Augusta on October 14.  Winners of the State Contest will compete in the Northeast Regional Contest which will also be held in Augusta from November 2nd - 4th.  The Northeast Region consists of  lodges in New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Rhode Island. 

The five champions showed their stuff.  Pinpoint accuracy, determination, and penalty-kick excellence were in evidence among all of today's soccer-shooting hopefuls, making today's competition a real thrill for the spectators.  As the youngsters stepped up to the line bringing with them their talent and ambition, they battled it out for the highest score in their division.

The 2007 Elks "Soccer Shoot" Championship Winners

Promoting Outside-the-Lodge Relationships
By Richard J. Goldner, GL Public Relations Committee Chairman

An effective public relations program with aggressive and enthusiastic committee-persons is a key building block to achieving the growth goals of our Order ... from the grassroots lodge organization all the way to our senior echelon.

For 2007-2008, a fountain of public relations “focusing on the community” programs is being rolled out, with the sole purpose of having others feel good about the things we do. This is all part of the publicity derived from the BIKES approach of Being Involved in the community Keeps Elks Strong.

Every lodge possesses a nucleus of pro-active members eager to engage and who are not threatened by external involvement (i.e. escaping the comfort zone of the lodge walls). These are the talented people who, when mobilized, can help establish valuable outside relationships. Ask for their help. Since public relations is so much more than just reporting lodge activities that have already taken place, we must all self-inspect our programs to kick them up a notch and not be satisfied with just patting ourselves on the back with little or no community recognition. In that regard, establishing personal rapport and building lasting relationships with human interest and community affairs newspaper reporters is a mandatory public relations function. Visiting the mayor’s office for identifying the person(s) involved with the Government Channel will be a stimulating experience. You will be pleasantly surprised to find sincere interest and receptivity to featuring Elk activities and programming.

An important objective of our promotion and awareness activities is being re-energized. That facet is to create a better informed and enthusiastic public environment conducive to making it easier to identify a quality candidate for membership. Because of enhanced PR initiatives, that individual should already have a good feeling about the Elks … and have a keen desire to know more and become involved (for the right reasons).

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, Newsbriefs, and/or Website. Also, if you would like to be removed from this mailing list, please send an e-mail to Public Relations Director Wayne Cotterly at meapr@fairpoint.net. In addition, if you know of someone who would like to be added to this list, please have them forward their e-mail address to the same address. All information provided has been read and approved by the MEA State President