Twelve members of local Marion Elks Lodge No. 32 received the Grand Exalted Ruler’s (GER) Award Pin for excellence in membership procurement. This award is for members who brought in three or more new members during the 2003-2004 Lodge year.
Earning GER Award Pins were Ben Appelfeller, Frank Bellamy, Justin Bowers, Steve Hoffman, Keith Peppard, Dwight “Rosey” Roseberry, Brad Smith, Phil Sparks, Deb Stulley, Mike Sykes, Darrick Thacker and Bobb Waddle.
The awards were presented by the local Exalted Ruler, Brad Smith, at the March 18th Lodge meeting. “This is an outstanding achievement, and absolutely vital to the growth and prosperity of our organization” Smith said. “To put this in perspective, there are over 2,100 Elks Lodges in the United States, and only 3,600 GER Pins were awarded last year. That’s about two per Lodge, and the Marion Elks Lodge 32 achieved twelve awards. We are extremely pleased to be bucking the national trend in that we actually attained a net gain of almost 50 new members this Lodge year.”