My fellow Elks brothers and sisters, I welcome you to the 2022-2023 Fairfield ELKS #1192 lodge year. First of all, I would like to thank you for the honor to represent our lodge as your newly elected Exalter Ruler. I look forward to having a year that may allow us an opportunity to start to return our world back to “normal” and working with the current group of officers and trustees to make a strong comeback. The last few years have been a challenge on so many levels for everyone, including our lodge. Our lodge’s leadership have done an excellent job to weather the storm keeping our lodge viable to continue to serve this community.
I want to thank Rich and Julie Kyle for serving our lodge during a challenging year. They both worked hard to keep us moving along and they did it with a smile on their face. I would also like to thank the officers, trustees, and the many members and volunteers that has made this lodge successful. A special thanks to Ryan Kurka, our outgoing head trustee, for all of the hard work he has done for our organization over the years keeping this old building together and working so hard on the feeds and many other activities. Your hard work has never gone unnoticed and is appreciated by all.
This year I would like to focus on a few goals. First of all, I would love to get more of our current members involved. I challenge each of you to volunteer for one activity. Something small, something easy, something that would just take an hour or two of your time once a year. It is very rewarding to see firsthand how our lodge impacts our community. “You make a living by what you get. You make a life by what you give.” — Winston Churchill. We are always looking for a little extra help for the very worthy projects that we do to support our local children, veterans, and families. Come up and have a good time. Get inspired, invite a friend; we are always looking for new likeminded individuals to become members that want to help their community, while getting the satisfaction to know they are making a difference. Just give me a call or text, call the lodge and leave a message, email the lodge at fairfieldelks1192@gmail.com, or reach out to an officer or trustee to let us know you want to help. My cell number is 319-931-7745.
The second goal I would like to focus on is getting the elevator up to code and continue paying down the roof repair loan. This is a requirement that we can no longer put off. This will cost us approximately up to $50K and will require fundraising, donations, and likely another bank loan. The membership has done a truly amazing job helping out through continued donations and fundraising for the recent roof repair. If every member donated just $10/month (0.33/day), we could get our elevator up to code without incurring debt to ensure a safe method for all of our members to enjoy the lodge without having to climb stairs. There are systems in place that make this extremely easy to do through Iowa State Bank, Paypal, and Venmo. Please reach out to us and ask how you can help. You are all so much appreciated! Thank you for all that you do for this lodge and community. Let’s have a great year together!
Fraternally yours,
Ryan Ford, Exalted Ruler
Stagettes will remain on the second Thursday of the month at 5:30 p.m. starting with a game night on Aril 14th. Dayna Ford