Hello, my fellow Elks brothers and sisters,
I certainly hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas and
will be having a Happy New Year! It is
hard to believe that it is 2023 already!
Another year buzzed right by.
Reminder: If you haven’t paid your dues yet, please do so
immediately. We are trying to get them
all caught up as soon as possible. We
have already paid Grand Lodge on your behalf in April for this lodge year. You can mail a check for $77 to Fairfield Elks,
PO Box 365, Fairfield, IA, pay at the lodge, Venmo @fairfieldelks1192,
or PayPal at fairfieldelks1192@gmail.com. We appreciate your membership and support.
I want to send a huge sincere thank you to Hickenbottom,
Inc. for donating 2 toilets for the ladies' restroom, Jeff Koontz and Mike Crew
for donating the labor for installation, Pete Nelson for donating the bolts and
wax rings, and Steve Winslow for setting it all up. Thank you all.
Recently our By-Laws had to be updated as per requirement
from Grand Lodge. We received
notification that they were approved and we are good for another 5 years.
The Hoop Shoot and Shop with a Hero was another great
success. For Shop with a Hero, we had 52
children, 25 families, and 48 heroes participate this year. Thank you to everyone that participated. It is so touching to see how we impact these
children and their families.
December was also a time to remember our Elks that have
passed through the light. We had our memorial ceremony on December 4th
and had a good turnout. I certainly hope
each family understands how important their loved one was to us, and that they
will never be forgotten.
Also in December, we were able to complete the application
for the elevator to receive Grand Lodge approval to proceed with the
acquisition of a bank loan for the upgrade/repairs. Iowa State Bank completed the loan process
very quickly so we can get started. The
project will be started very soon and should be completed over the next few
months. This will bring our elevator up
to Iowa code standards and ensure that every member has access to our lodge in
a safe manner.
This is a great time to remind everyone that this project is
expensive and we will do our best to provide fundraisers to help pay this off
as early as possible. There are ways
everyone can help. A small monthly
donation can go a long way. If every member donated
just $10/month (0.33/day or 2.50 a week) we can pay this off quickly to help
ensure a strong future for our lodge. We
have roughly 500 members in our fine Lodge. If we all pitch in $10 a month, we
can pay this off in one year. Please
give it some thought. We value you, your
membership, and what the lodge means to all of us. There are systems in place
that make this extremely easy to do through Iowa State Bank (automatic
withdrawals), PayPal, and Venmo. We can
be found on PayPal by searching for our email address of fairfieldelks1192@gmail.com
and we can be found on Venmo by searching on @fairfieldelks1192. If you have any questions on how to set this
up, please reach out to me or any of the lodge officers and trustees.
There will be a District Deputy
Clinic on January 14th at 10 a.m. at our lodge. Please join us in welcoming our District
Deputy Michelle Steer and the rest of our Southeast district lodges.
And now on to some exciting fun things. Tickets are on sale now for Dueling Pianos
on January 21, 2023. We will be having a
choice of burger baskets or chicken baskets and drink specials starting at 5
p.m. The show will start at 730 p.m. and
last until 1030 p.m. We had these
hilarious gentlemen do a show at the lodge in 2019 to a sold-out crowd. Get your tickets reserved soon as this will
sell out fast. Inquire from any officer,
trustee, or at the lodge.
The Elks National Foundation Fundraising Breakfast will be on
Saturday, February 11th, 7 AM-11 AM. All proceeds go to ENF, which funds Community
Investment Projects, Scholarships, and Youth & Veteran Programs in our
community and surrounding area. Tickets are $12 and will go on sale soon.
Fraternally
yours,
Ryan Ford, Exalted Ruler
The next
Stagettes meeting will be on January 12th.
Please join us for dinner and a game of Telestrations (After Dark). We look forward to seeing you there! Dayna Ford