Bill Neessen
Elk of the Year, POY, Public Relations Chairman
Posts: 2602
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Posted on: Mar. 28 2021,9:59 am |
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The Orange Elks are committed to helping our community with programs for children, get our drug awareness message out for the children and their parents, meet the needs of today’s veterans, and improve the quality of life in or city.
Many of the Lodges signature programs had to be cancelled by either the Orange Coast District or City of Orange or the County of Orange or the State of California due to the Covid-19.
E R Danny Salas, his officers, the Committee Chairmen and our lodge members were able to “Improvise, Adapt and Overcoming” the problems the Corona virus created and serve our children, conduct drug awareness programs, help our veterans, and serve our community. The most important order of business was to make sure that we followed all the Covid-19 guidelines making sure the safety of the public and our members was priority number 1.
We need new ways to get the Elks message out and that included using some of the following, virtual, streaming and zooming. By implementing these we were able to help our lodge with many of these programs. Organizing fifteen COVID-19 assistance programs for our community, presenting Americanism programs, keeping our Boy and Girl Scouting programs alive, donating to and supporting our Veterans programs and starting new Youth Activities programs. The following were a few that we accomplished at the Lodge this year:
Donating $2500 from an ENF Gratitude Grant to Waste Not OC (WNOC),
Conducting our Drug Awareness Assemblies to the elementary, junior high and high schools on lone,
Have a drive by to hand out our Scholarships awards to the graduating seniors,
Helping deliver boxes of food to families at the Sky View School,
Helping at the Youth Centers of Orange to pass out food,
Volunteering at sever local food distribution spots in our city,
Using the Grand Lodge’s Elks Community Investments Program Beacon Grant and made donations to DSAofOC and The Eli Home in the amount of $1,750.
We found a new way to collect gifts for The Eli Home Christmas Tree Program
Helping the Orange P D with “Shop with a Cop”.
Continuing our Drug Awareness Program we have work with the Orange Unified School District (OUSD ) in getting the information to the elementary, junior high and high schools about our Poster, Essay or Video Contest programs. We had winners in all three categories.
For his leadership during an exceedingly difficult time, the Orange Elks Lodge received the Grand Exalted Ruler's Making a Difference Special Citation.
Thank You, Danny for leading the Orange Elks Lodge #1475 through an exceedingly difficult year!
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