The ELKS Lodge, Sweet Home, Oregon, USA


Our First Visit to the Sweet Home Elks Lodge
and what I learned about it. 
by Wanderer MoonChild

The lumber olympics were this weekend here in Sweet Home and the Elk Lodge was offering breakfast at $7 per Adult and $3.50 per kid so I decided to use this event to get out into the town and try to explore the area. Cody and I decided not to tell the kids about my plans and we leave it a surprise. we woke them up with just enough time to get dressed, pack a day go bag and in the car. It was 100% worth it. they were all so excited to get to go out for breakfast and in one of the super, secret, cool kids club.

"The Elks organization was founded in New York City on February 16, 1868 under the name "Jolly Corks" by 15 actors, entertainers and others associated with the theater. They created this generous minded group "To promote and practice the four cardinal virtues of Charity, Justice, Brotherly Love and Fidelity; to promote the welfare and enhance the happiness of its members; to quicken the spirit of American Patriotism and cultivate good fellowship." sounds like a noble cause to me!
A table set up in Honor &
Rememberance of War Heroes 
that have passed.
The Elks Lodge is a non-political, non-sectarian and strictly American fraternity that you can only join by exclusive invitation of a member in good standing. To be accepted as a member, one must be an American citizen, believe in God, be of good moral character and be at least 21 years old. Not a horrible list of demands. I wonder if you have to only believe in the one "christian" God or if you are allowed to love others as well?

-Anyway, I'm not a sponsor so i'm going to get back to my story-

I've only ever been in elks lodges for funerals, so it was really really looking forward for seeing a lodge in a happy state instead of a mourning one and they delivered. Everyone was your kind and polite. 
Biscuits & Gravy
This was filling enough that
I ddnt need to eat again
until dinner.
All of the volunteers were very happy and the food was great. I had Biscuits & gravy and the kids had pancakes. I have to admit the food made me a bit nostalgic, reminding me of eating at my grandmother's dinner. Everyone there (member & non-member) were really accepting of my very energetic, talkative, hungry children and answering my 101 questions for this post. It was a great experience and I really hope that we get to have more opportunities to go up there and get to know these kind hearted people more. 
Mickey Mouse Pancakes!
 My kids absolutely 
loved these pancakes.

One of the people that I got to speak to the most was was the very happy Carla Claasen. She told me all about the fraternal order with hundreds of thousands of members, with a network of nearly 2000 lodges in communities all over the country and a 150+ year history! It was very exciting. It was very kind of her to take the time to educate me about how generously charitable this foundation is each year (I had no clue), giving millions in scholarships, an inspiration to youth, a friend to veterans and many other people in communities that their lodges are in, just to be supportive. 
Carla was such a pleasure to meet and to get to talk too.
I really enjoyed listening to the pride in her voice while she happily answered all of my questions and talked about all of the wonderful things that the Elks Lodge does to support not just their members but their community as well. 

And have I mentioned the view yet? My poor little iPhone just does not even begin to give this breath taking vista any bit of justice. From the patio outside you can see all of mountains hillsides and the different shades of greens from the patches of different trees are memorizing. I could have sat there and stared at the majestic scene for hours. 





Work Cited:

-Brief Interview with Carla Claasen (Wife of PER)


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