The first Wednesday of every May is the night the Orange Elks Lodge honors the youth of our community and showcases our many programs we have for our youths.
The evening started with over two hundred and thirty members and guests enjoying a spaghetti dinner.
Our cooks Brian, Jan and Bob
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The Lodge Room was packed.
Our lodge has helped the Orange Police Department purchase their police dogs. Officer Damon Allen and Bosco along with Officer Carlos Gutierrez and Lycan visited with guest. Damon and Bosco
Carlos and Lycan
The Pledge of Allegiance was led by our Boy and Girl Scout Troops 1475.
Gabrielle Boyadjian, Miss City of Orange 2014, sang the National Anthem.
This is the tenth year the Orange Elks have handed out dictionaries to all the third graders in the Orange Unified School District. Members went to twenty eight schools and handed out two thousand five hundred dictionaries.
The lodge has a very strong scouting program. Over one hundred boys and girls are members of our troops. Since 2006 our boy scout troop has had eight members earn the Eagle Scout award.
Each year the lodge supports the North Sunrise Little League with a donation.
Gabrielle and City of Orange Mayor Pro-Tem Fred Whitaker helped the Chairmen hand out the awards. Fred thanked the Elks for helping our young people.
Mayor Pro-Tem Fred Whitaker
Hoop Co-Chairmen Brenda and Carol Nailon handed out the trophies to the boys and girls winners. A Sportsmanship Award was given to the individual who had the best attitude.
L – R
Dino Sdrales, Xavier Alexander, Rakshith Thuraga, Ricky Rodriguez, Gwendolyn Kinley, Gabriella, Clara Smith, Ellery Trinidad, Mariah Rodriguez and Isabella Cuevas.
Back row
Fred, Brenda and Carol
The Drug Awareness awards were presented by Chris Cooper, Drug Awareness Chairmen. The theme was “Down With Drugs Up With Awareness”. The winners were Anna Smith, Axs Avenido and Dylan Conner. They received a $100 check from the Lodge and $100 from the Orange Coast District. Anna and Axs won for their essays and Dylan won for his poster.
L – R
Dylan Conner, Anna Smith, Axs Aviendo
Back row
Chris, Gabriella and Fred
Jean Johansen, chairmen, presented the Americanism winners their awards. The theme was “ What Does Veterans Day Mean to Me”. Our five winners each had an inspiring essay.
L – R
Savannah McCarthy, Juliette Kronenberg, Lindsay Yang, Andrea Bodillo, and Miguel Curiel
Back row
Jean, Gabrielle and Fred
Lynda Einstein, chairmen, presented the 2014 Most Valuable Student Scholarship awards. A $500.00 scholarship from the Orange Elks Lodge was presented to eight students. Over their 4 years in high school, these 8 students had a total of over 10,000 hours of extracurricular activities; 2,500 hours of community service; and over 1,500 hours of work experience while maintaining an average of 4.0. In addition to our lodge scholarships, Ellen Key, Alden D’Souza and Audrey Nguyen received a scholarship of eight hundred dollars from the Orange Coast District and Ellen receiver a thousand dollars from the State for four years.
L – R
Ellen Key, Alyssa Lentz, Jack Mendenhall, Alden D’Souza, Audrey Nguyen, Kelsey Glastetter, Kimberly Torres,and Lynda.
Back Row
Justin Short, Fred and Gabrielle
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CWO3 William “Gunner” Southern, our guest speaker introduced two Orange High School JROTC members who will be entering the Marine Corp. Brian and Stephanie Fitzpatrick, National Veteran’s Service Co-Chairmen and Stephanie gave each of them a $250 calling card to use at boot camp.
L – R
“Gunner”, Gabrielle, Eric Hurtado, Paolina Ortiz, Brian, Stephanie and Fred
