We kicked off the week with a Diamondbacks Baseball game, where our Elks Scholar Advisory Board got to know each other, ENF staff and a few special friends of the ENF.

The fun continued on Saturday evening at our Foundation Fiesta, where we shared a meal and enjoyed a Mexican Rodeo with more of our friends and supporters.

Throughout Convention, ENF staff distributed thousands of ribbons to members whose Lodges met the per-capita goal, ENF donors and ENF volunteers. We also held seminars on using ENF grants to raise the Lodge’s community profile, best practices for promoting the ENF in local Lodges, and tips from a panel of Lodge’s who’ve consistently posted membership gains on how to boost membership. Videos of the membership and grants sessions will be on our website soon, so don’t worry if you missed them.

We also gave back to our host city in a big way by giving the $25,000 Elks Give-Back Grant to Ryan House, a Phoenix home for critically ill children.

In addition, we funded a $25,000 USO2GO kit, which will give some of the comforts of home to troops stationed at Forward Operating Base Shinwar, located in a hotbed near the Afghanistan/Pakistan border. Check out the thank you video the troops shared with us!

Many programs recipients joined us at Convention, including Impact Grant recipients, one of our top MVS scholarship winners, both Hoop Shoot Getty Powell Award winners, the 2011 Elks Alum of the Year and the Scholar Advisory Board. We celebrated the success of all of our 2010-11 programs during the ENF Salute to Excellence reception, and were pleased that many of our friends were able to join us at this event.

During the sessions, we screened our 2011 Elks Scholar Tribute Video as well as our 2011 Community Investments Program Video.

Thanks to all of you who were able to join us at Convention. You can look forward to photos and videos and more stories in the coming weeks!