Eureka Elks Lodge #652

Eureka Elks Lodge No. 652 presented the Leo Franks Scholarship Awards.
The recipients are Humboldt County residents and Grandchildren of Elk
members in good standing. Each recipient receives $1,000.00. Pictured from
left to right: Lodge Leading Knight, Marta, Martinez: Colton Johnston,
graduate of Eureka High with a 4.5 GPA and was valedictorian 2019. He is
currently enrolled at California Institute of Technology, majoring in
Mechanical Engineering. Kelli Johnston, is a senior at Eureka High with a
4.36 GPA. She will be attending Colorado Mesa University studying
Environmental Science. Nate Fowler, graduate of Eureka High with a 4.2 GPA
and was Times Standard student of the month during his senior year. He is
currently attending Shasta Community College and plans to transfer to Cal
Poly, San Luis Obispo or San Diego State. His major is Mechanical
Engineering. Lodge Exalted Ruler, Kathy Payne. Not pictured, Keylei
Aujoles Carroll, a senior at Eureka High with a 4.3 GPA. She has been in
Student Government for the last three years and is Vice President of the
class of 2021. She will be attending Davis on a Soccer Scholarship.

The February 5th Lodge meeting was conducted by the Past Exalted Rulers as is the custom. Officer nominations for the upcoming year were accepted during that meeting. The following nominations were submitted and accepted without contest; therefore, they are considered elected to their respective positions: Five Year Trustee Karen Hunter, Four Year Trustee PER Sherie Bialous, Lodge Treasurer PER Ernie Nunes, Lecturing Knight Ward Mengle, Loyal Knight James Jones and Exalted Ruler Scott Reinsmith. Two positions were contested. Brad Smith and Judy Sousa for Lodge Secretary, and Kevin Christie and Marta Martinez for Leading Knight.

The February 17th Lodge meeting was conducted in the dining room to facilitate social distancing and better attendance via the ethernet. The meeting agenda was shortened to accommodate the time necessary for the contested elections. There were 90 members physically in attendance and 17 members in attendance via zoom for a total of 107 voting members. Brad Smith was elected Lodge Secretary, and Marta Martinez was elected Leading Knight. My congratulations to all of the upcoming officers. I want to thank the elections committee of PER Dennis Hunter, PER Kurt Bialous, ELK James Jones and Zoom coordinator Eddie Morgan for very smoothly handling the election process.

Attendance to all committee and membership meetings is allowed via zoom. The process is simple for those who have either computers or smart phones. Those with neither can still attend by using their dial in phones. Meeting links will be sent to those with emails on record. The process is explained in the Elk Lodge #652 Facebook site. We are broadcasting the House Committee, Trustees, and General Membership meetings. I was excited to see 107 members in attendance on February 17, which is about four times the usual number of attendees. I encourage all members to attend meetings when they can, and become a part of the process of running the Lodge. Your participation is appreciated by the entire Officer Corps. By Lodge Secretary PDDGER Brad Smith

Hello Members, This will be my last article as the Exalted Ruler. This year has been something else. I had planned on many projects that we were unable to get done. I had planned to retire April 1st as the Lodge Kitchen Manager, but because there was no time to break anyone in, I told Scott Reinsmith, our new E.R. that I would stay and help him anyway I can.

Congratulations to all the new Officers. I know you will work together for the betterment of the Lodge. I would like to thank everyone who came in to help this past year. Thank you to Jan Belardi for managing the bar for the last year. She and George will be leaving us and we will miss them. I hope they come back and visit us.

I am sending a menu with this Herd Talk. I feel we will be back in the Red soon. Please make reservations by 5:00 the day before as I will do the buying of food the day of the dinner. This will keep the cost down, and we will not have any waste. Thank you for all the support this year. It has been a year I will never forget. Hope to see you at the Lodge.

Exalted Ruler Kathy Payne

Herd Talk March 2021

Well it’s been a rough year for the lodge with Covid-19 restrictions, opening and closing, loss of
revenue, the freezer going out and most events having been cancelled. But we are hanging in
there and hope to open up again soon. We are planning a lot of meals and events in hopes of
opening again in March. Sunday, March 21st we will be having our Purple Pig dinner.
Remember this is a fundraiser so fill up your Purple Pig and bring it down to the lodge. This will
be my last event as Purple Pig chairman. Our new Leading Knight, Marta Martinez will be taking
over the duties of Purple Pig chairman. Also James Jones, our new Loyal Knight, will be taking
over as our E.N.F. chairman. I wish them both great success in their new positions. If you
would like to help them out with any of our fundraising activities, please reach out to them.
The officer core of the lodge has started practicing for Ritual Competition in Ukiah. It was
cancelled last year but is rumoured to be happening this year. We will try our best to represent
our lodge in competition.

We had a really good turn out for our elections. I want to thank everyone who came in person
or participated in online voting. This is your lodge and your votes really count towards the path
this lodge takes now and into the future. Mostly I want to give our Exalted Ruler, Kathy Payne,
a hand . . . make it a standing ovation. She stood strong as our leader. No fun was had this
year, no Ritual, no state or national conventions, no Weekend in the Redwoods, no dancing or
anything else. Yet Kathy stood tall and made the best of it. Even though we were closed she
was here. Painting, cleaning the bar/kitchen, rearranging the office and dealing with mountains
of paperwork. Her motto this year was “Get’er done and let’s have fun.” She didn’t get to have
fun . . . but she did get it done and in doing so our lodge is in a good place. Our lodge is doing
better than most lodges in the district and nationally.

Lastly I want to thank all the lodge members, volunteers, officers, and the committees for the
hard work of keeping this lodge together during a very unprecedented and challenging year. So
my motto for this month is “Kathy got it done, let her have some fun.”
Scott Reinsmith, Leading Knight

The 2020-2021 Drug Awareness Program Essay and Poster Contest Winners: Essay- Maile Russell – Sunny Brea Middle School, Arcata Ca. Poster- Ilya Kelly – Arcata Elementary School, Arcata, CA.
The lodge’s winners will each receive a monetary award of $100. Their entries were also selected by the Northwest District DAP Chairman to be submitted to the State Association contest. As the district winners they each will receive an additional $100 award. State Association winners will be announced in April. By Jack Harris, Lodge DAP Chairman.

The Elks National Foundation (ENF) dispersed $14.6 million in Grants this year towards community based COVID-19 relief projects. Through the efforts of the Veteran’s and South Bay/Pine Hill School’s Committees the lodge received $7500 in ENF grant funding which provided COVID-19 relief assistance to the following.
In June the Veteran’s Committee made a $2000 Gratitude Grant donation to the North Coast Veteran Resource Center. A portion of the funds were applied to their Transitional Housing Program to assist in food cost and disinfectant Supplies. The remaining funds purchased meal cards from local merchants, which were given to residents placed in alternate housing due to their high risk of catching the disease.

The Veteran’s Committee conducted two Drive Through Food Drives with a $3500 Beacon Grant. One in November and second in December. Each event provided local needy veterans with Two “Food for People” food boxes along with a meal box from the Eureka Elks Lodge Veterans Committee. The December Drive Through, with the assistance of a $1500 donation from the United Bikers of Northern California, included an additional a $25 Gift Card to WinCo for each recipient. The combined drives provided 110 Elks meal boxes and 220 “Food for People” boxes.

The South Bay/Pine Hill School’s Committee used a Spotlight Grant of $2000 to make a “Financial Donation” to the South Bay Union School District for the purchase of the “Gift Cards” for meals to be distributed to disadvantaged families during this year Christmas/Holiday Break. The Gift Cards, redeemable at a local food market, along with food bags containing non-perishable items and fresh produce provided these families for food “expenditure” relief during the holiday season. Ninety families received 270 food bags which provide 343 meals. By Jack Harris, Veteran’s Committee.

Most of you know that we are back into the purple tier, which means the Lodge is closed. We will remain closed when we are in the purple tier to protect our members. Our average age is in the low sixties, so many of our members have a higher vulnerability. Although, we are a lot better off than those in central and Southern California, and I expect we will remain that way, considering we are above the redwood curtain. We will open up again when we reach the red tier. I don’t believe that will be too far in the future considering the vaccine is getting out there now. Our members will be getting vaccinated before much of the population, and that’s a plus for us. Ramping up distribution seems to be what the government is trying to do at this time. Our Lodge year begins April first, and I suspect we will be well along to recovery at that time. Many events that were cancelled during 2020, will be forthcoming in 2021. I expect we will be in full swing by sometime this summer.

Meetings in person with facial masks and social distancing started again on January 18.

Meetings of the House Committee, Trustees and general membership will continue at the Lodge with masks and social distancing; however, attendance is available through “zoom”. It will be possible for those without email to use zoom via their telephone. The following website Information should get you into any meeting: eurekaelkslodge652@gmail.com. Eddie Morgan is in charge of that program.

We have held off initiations because of COVID. We can resume them by having candidates read and sign off on the obligation; however, we would rather have all candidates attend the ritual. We expect the ritual to resume the second meeting in April.

Annual elections of officers are held during the month of February each year. This year is no
exception in spite of the COVID pandemic. We, as Elks, need to carry on with our philanthropic
ideals. A big part of that is the Officer Corps of every Lodge. The Officers conduct the ritualistic
initiation that we all take before becoming a member, but that’s not all they do. The Exalted
Ruler is the Chief Executive Officer of the Lodge, making daily decisions that affect each of us
as members. The Leading Knight is the second in command, taking over in the absence of the
Exalted Ruler. He or she also stands ready to hear the cry of affliction and to aid those in
destress. The other Chair Officers have duties, such as, managing the Major Project (Purple
Pig), and the Elks National Foundation (ENF). Both are the charity parts of Elkdom. The Lodge
Secretary and Lodge Treasurer are stand alone officers with duties as defined in the Statutes.
Every Exalted Ruler (ER) who completes their year becomes a Past Exalted Ruler (PER). The
PER’s act as mentors to the Officer Corps and the Lodge in general. Eureka has a very diverse
PER Association. Many have gone on to become State (CHEA) and National Officers, such as
Association Vice Presidents or District Deputy Grand Exalted Rulers. Officers that are often not
thought of are the Lodge Trustees. There are five of them that make up the Board of Trustees.
The Board of Trustees is responsible for the assets of the Lodge (the money and property).
They are the ones who put the budget together, keep and eye on it, and manage the property.
Being an officer is sometimes demanding of time and energy, but it is always rewarding.

Nominations for the following Offices will be accepted on February 3, 2021. Exalted Ruler,
Leading Knight, Loyal Knight, Lecturing Knight and Tiler as Chair Officers. Two Trustee
positions will be up for election. The Secretary and Treasurer are also up for election annually.
Nominations will be accepted in writing from those who are attending via Zoom because of the
COVID situation. Naturally, masks and social distancing are required. Traditionally, the Chair
Officers move up in rank as there is rarely a contested election. The Chaplain, Esquire and
Inner Guard are appointed by the incoming Exalted Ruler. Nominations are closed at the end of
the meeting unless no one is nominated for a particular office. Nominees are elected by
ascension if only one nominee is presented. Elections if an office is contested are held by secret
ballot the following meeting in February. The PER’s run the first meeting in February.

Fraternally, Brad Smith, PDDGER, Lodge Secretary