Elks To Celebrate 150th Anniversary Saturday
The national 150th anniversary of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks of the United States will be celebrated locally Saturday night.
Greg Fish, Elks Lodge No. 263 exalted ruler, and Jim Murphy, Elks Lodge member, said each Elks lodge is celebrating the national 150th anniversary of the club’s formation in New York City. Murphy said the club was founded on Feb. 16, 1868, by a group of theatrical actors who were going through a bit of a rough patch and created the organization for support. Fish said each lodge will hold a celebration during the month of February to honor the national anniversary.
The local Elks Lodge, located at 339 E. Fourth St., Jamestown, was formed in 1892, Fish said. The Jamestown Elks are celebrating with a dinner and dance party Saturday at the lodge. He said the dinner will be bacon wrapped beef tenderloin and chicken caprese, with Michael Ross Nugent of Buffalo providing the entertainment. He added 100 Elks members have RSVP’d out of 340 club members. For more information on the event, call 484-1751.
Murphy said the original Elks club, which was originally known as the Jolly Corks, became relevant because it was good at helping people. Fish said one of the core principals for the Elks is charity.
Fish said this year locally they will be celebrating their 100th Veterans Day breakfast, which might be the oldest Veterans Day celebration in the country. Murphy said the story goes that a group of veterans held a military gun salute at the corner of Third and Main Street in 1919 to recognize the one year anniversary of the armistice that ended World War I. With the Elks lodge located at the corner of Third and Main streets at the time, Elks members invited the veterans into the lodge for breakfast after the ceremony.
Fish said the club for more than 40 years has provided a turkey dinner and personalized gifts, with assistance from Aspire of Western New York, for people receiving services at The Resource Center for Christmas. The Elks also provide lunches to Special Olympic participants and volunteers, which they have been doing since 1975. The lodge members also present a Flag Day ceremony to a local school each year.
The Elks lodge also provides monetary grants to local organizations as well. Fish said they’ve received a grant from the national lodge office for $3,000, of which the local group donates $2,000 of it to the St. Susan Center. Each year they also provide between $4,000-$5,000 in educational scholarship funding to children of members.
“We pride ourselves in service first,” Fish said.
Fish said there are more than 2,000 lodges nationwide, with more than one million members. For more information, visit elks.org.