The Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks of the USA has joined forces with Donate Life America to increase donations of organs, eyes and life-saving tissue.
The Grand Lodge, Fraternal Committee is asking Elks Lodges nationwide to promote the Organ Donor Program in their Lodge Bulletins and Lodge Web sites to help inspire members and citizens in their communities to make these life-saving donations.
Even though 95% of Americans are in favor of being a donor, only 54% of the U.S. adult population, are registered organ, eye and tissue donors. Nationally, nearly 33,600 patients began new lives in 2016 thanks to organ transplants. 683,000 have taken place since 1988. Every year 1.5 million tissue transplants are performed. 48,000 patients have their sight restored through corneal transplants each year and 1,500,000 since 1961! Unfortunately, 119,000 men, women and children currently need life-saving organ transplants. Then, add another name to the national organ transplant waiting list every 10 minutes. No wonder an average of 22 people die each day from the lack of available organs for transplant!
We Elks Members can help close the gap! The effort of Lodges to promote the program through their Bulletins and Web site can gain them five points in their quests to be named an All American Lodge. More incentives will be announced in coming years as the program takes shape throughout Elkdom.
For more information on the importance of donation and how to become a registered donor in your state, click on the Donate Life icon to go to the Donate LifeSM web-site, or by logging onto www.donatelife.net. This is a great way to show that "Elks Give from the Heart."
Join us, Like us, or just visit us on Facebook! Learn about upcoming events, community service programs the lodge assists with and opportuities for volunteerting within the lodge.
The Home Service Program, concentrating on individuals with Cerebral Palsy, is a collection of 27 Home Service Directors and the vans that the directors use to provide individualized services to adults and children with disabilities and their families in their home communities. Since inception, the program has grown to encompass every county of New York State. The staff provide referrals for appropriate evaluation and program services, advocacy, counseling, follow-up and program development.
Our scholarship programs are for undergraduate study only. A student may not receive more than one Elks National Foundation scholarship award or grant in any one academic year.
The scholarships awards (except EEG) are evidenced by a Certificate of Award issued by the Chicago office of the Elks National Foundation. All checks are paid directly to the school; under no circumstance can we make payment directly to the student.
Scholarship awards may be used for cost of attendance expenses. In order to receive payment, a student must have the school send to our Chicago office, the completed Verification of Enrollment form, whereupon, we will issue our check, payable to the school, and mail it directly to the school to establish a credit in the name of the student. We will notify the student when we mail the check.
Since most checks are being prepared during the months of August through November, student and school must allow four to six weeks for payment.
If a student terminates his or her courses for any reason, the undisbursed balance of the award MUST be returned directly to the Foundation’s Chicago office. It may NOT be transferred to another school, and it may NOT be paid to the student personally.
It is the responsibility of the student to follow up on all matters relating to his or her scholarship award.
In all correspondence relating to a student who has been awarded a scholarship, we must have the full name and the ENF ID of the student.
The information herein should not be turned over to publishers or those who wish to include it in a computer resource listing. We receive hundreds of requests from students who pay for scholarship/grant information, only to find they are not eligible or that the information is years out-of-date. Unfortunately, many of these sources do not publish complete information, nor do they update their files on a regular basis.
The Elks National Foundation has no loan programs, vocational grants or assistance for graduate study available, and it does not maintain a mailing list.
If a student would like to use his or her scholarship funds for a study abroad program, it must be billed through an accredited, U.S. degree-granting institution. We cannot issue funds to a third party program or vendor.
The Elks National Foundation reserves the right to cancel an award in total, if we do not hear from a student for two consecutive academic years.
For more information contact the Elks National Foundation Scholarship Office at scholarship@elks.org.or contact the New York State Chair Jay Mason at jmason9237@gmail.com.