Welcome to the month of Thanksgiving members.  Although I certainly believe we can be thankful for all of the months.  This is the start of the next of my favorite seasons.  You all know how much I love summer and my flowers and being on the lake and hot weather.  But the Holidays are really another favorite of mine.  Thanksgiving, my birthday and then Christmas and the fresh new year after that. 

In September we had a banner month for our charitable gambling, we were able to give so many donations in October which I’m very proud of.

In October we donated over $22,000! That’s the largest amount to date for one single month.  In October we gave $1,000 to the Elks National Foundation, $1,000 to Penny a Day for our Youth Camp.  The Chisholm Food Shelf and the Quad City Food Shelf also received $1,000 each. Although Food Shelves are used by many in the community every month, fall and winter seem to get more visitors due to heating costs going up, etc. It’s so nice to be able to help them.

We also awarded $400 to the Range of Voices, $500 to the Cherry PTSO $500 to United Way of NE MN, $500 to the Merritt Elementary PTA, $500 to Rock Ridge Baseball, $500 to the Virginia Figure Skating Group.  $500 to Northern Communities Credit Union for their Youth Financial Literacy Program, $500 to Essentia Health Foundation for Cold Caps for Chemo patients to wear during treatment.  $500 to the Hibbing High School Sewing Class.  $324 to a literacy program for a 3rd grade classroom in Cook.  Ten students of the month at $150 each, for the Americanism Contest we’ve agreed to supply each classroom that participates in this program $100 for the classroom to purchase equipment (up to 18 classrooms) and our biggest one ever $10,000 to the new Eveleth Pocket Park from the proceeds of our Side-by-Side Raffle.

I continue to be thankful that we are able to do so much for our surrounding communities.  It’s such an amazing feeling to be able to give back.

We rounded out October with our Halloween Bingo, we had over 14 people dress up. We also celebrated our building’s 100th birthday – so much great information was set up by Mel and Hammer – it was wonderful to see all of the history of not only our building, but also Eveleth.  Thank you so much Mel and Hammer for all of the work you put in to make this a success.  It was great to see a nice crowd at the lodge.

We still need donation request letters to keep giving.  Any letters can be sent to the lodge, attention Gambling Manager at PO Box 686, Eveleth, MN  55734.  We try to keep all of our donations local. We don’t spend money on advertising how much we give, but there is always a recap of our donations in the newsletter and a list posted every month at the lodge.

In December we’re partnering with Scenic Rivers Healthcare and the Eveleth EMS Department to help with their Stuff the Ambulance again – planning a very large event this year.  The Elks will be donating hot chocolate and candy canes, we’re working on having some local artists play Christmas carols and there will be so much more, including a visit from Santa!! Watch the Elk-O-Gram and Facebook for more information.  The event will be held on December 1, 2023 from Noon-6 on the corner of Grant Ave. and Jones Street.  When you’re out shopping on Black Friday don’t forget to pick up an extra toy or two for a child in need in our area! Let’s make sure to do our part to make others thankful as well.

Wishing you all a blessed Holiday season coming up, if you have enough, remember to share ~  hope to see you at the lodge soon.