We publish the Lodge Lowdown on Sunday afternoons. Click the  image to view the latest copy of the Lodge Lowdown which contains the News & Announcements as well as Event information for the current week and beyond.

To see a list of and view the last 20 emails sent out by the Lodge click here.

Check the sidebar to see our News & Announcements Index.

In conjunction with the Girl Scouts of Southeast Florida, our Lodge is soliciting donations from our members to support this worthy cause. Michele and Fred Kiesel are spearheading this initiative. The Girl Scouts have a program “Cookies for the Military” that sends cookies to our troops throughout the year.

Since the onset Covid-19, we were required to suspend our “Cookies for Soldiers” program and the Girl Scout Cookies for the Military is a wonderful way for our commitment to our military to continue. Every dollar donated to the Girl Scout Program will be used to purchase cookies. The Girl Scouts have an arrangement with Soldier Angels, Forgotten Soldiers Outreach and Operation Homefront where cookies are transported at no cost to the Girl Scouts! The goal is to have every package going to our military personnel to have “A Taste of Home”.

A $5 donation will purchase one box of cookies, $60 will send a case to our military personnel, and $100 will provide 20 boxes of cookies! Donations of all sizes are welcome!

Donations can be made by check (make your check payable to the Vero Beach Elks and write Girl Scout Cookies in the “for” line on your check) deposited in the Secretary’s mailbox or mailed care of the Secretary, by cash at the bar, by credit card at the bar or by credit card on the Lodge’s website (there is a button for Girl Scout Cookies Donation). With the approval of the membership, our Lodge Trustees have generously offered to match all donations from our Lodge’s charity fund! Let’s show our military men and women how much they are appreciated because…

Once again this year, our Lodge participated in the Grand Lodge Americanism Essay Contest. The theme for this year’s essay was, “How can Patriotism be Demonstrated”. The awards ceremony for this year’s contest was held at the Lodge on Tuesday evening, February 9th.

Pictured above are this year’s winners. Back row left to right: Jim McFadyen (Lodge Americanism Chairman),  Khaola Roman, Elizabeth Hall, Paige Keen, Vanessa-Lopez Romanowiz and Exalted Ruler Rich Miller, Front row: William Scott and Johnathon Phan.

here are two divisions, Division I is for 5th & 6th graders and Division II is for 7th & 8th graders.

Our judges for the contest were:
Flo Synenko
Kathi Miller
Laurie McFadyen

Each of the six division winners received a Certificate of Appreciation and a gift card to Walmart of varying denominations. In each division 3rd place winners received a $50 card, 2nd place winners received $75 card and 1st place winners receive a $100 card.

Division I

The 3rd Place winner from Sebastian Elementary School: Vanessa-Lopez Romanowiz.
The 2nd Place winner from Sebastian Elementary School: William Scott.
The 1st Place winner from Treasure Coast Elementary School: Johnathon Phan.

Division II – all from Storm Grove Middle School

The 3rd Place winner: Khaola Roman.
The 2nd Place winner: Elizabeth Hall.
The 1st Place winner: Paige Keen.

All six finalists have won at the District level and their essays have been forwarded to the State for judging. Two of the last three years we have had State winners. These winners received a check for $1500.00 and they and their families were treated to a weekend in Orlando to attend the State convention, and read their essay at the luncheon meeting.

You may recall that we received some guidelines recently from Grand Lodge as to how we should tailor our Facebook approach. Here’s what we’ll be doing.

Our Facebook Page enables our Lodge to create an authentic and public presence on Facebook that, by default, is visible to everyone on the internet. Every person on Facebook, can connect with our Facebook Page and then receive our updates in their News Feed and interact with us.

Elks Lodges are listed as a 501(c)(8) tax free status with the IRS because we are not open to the public. Since we are a private organization, our public Facebook Page cannot be used to promote our Lodge activities restricted to our membership.

It’s been said that our benevolence is Elkdom’s best kept secret. On our Facebook Page we need to tell the public about why we are the Premier Charitable and Patriotic Organization in the Nation. There we can post events open to the public, our community involvement, patriotic activities, veterans services activities, information on how to join and how to rent our banquet hall.

Facebook Groups allow people to come together around a common cause, issue or activity to organize, express objectives, discuss issues, post photos and share related content. Our newly created Facebook Group is linked to our Facebook Page; however, it’s a private group open only to Elks and their spouses. It’s here that we can promote our social activities, discuss Lodge business, share ideas, etc.

We ask that all our Lodge members and spouses on Facebook Like and Follow our Facebook Page and Join our Facebook Group. We would also appreciate your Comments on our posts as it will help to increase our audience reach.

We need your help to successfully pull this off. We already have four members on the team; and we need just a few more to get things rolling.  Would you like to lend your videographic or social media skills and join our team in expanding our Lodge Facebook presence? If so, contact Jim Razz at 703-303-2672 or by  email.

This is a revision to this blog post originally dated June 19, 2020

If you have a smart phone and want to know what’s happening at the Lodge without depending on email, this solution may be for you.

Each Lodge has a Virtual Home Page on elks.org that will automatically detect the user’s device and optimize its display accordingly.  On your smart phone visit go.veroelks.com to access our Virtual Home Page.  Although this website displays very well on your desktop, its real power is on a mobile device such as a smart phone.

On the top left of each page on your mobile device, you’ll find three icons with a blue background. The gearbox icon on the right has options for Member Login at elks.org, Register for access there, Invite a friend to join and Search elks.org. Pressing the Elks icon in the middle takes you to the elks.org home page. The hamburger-shaped menu icon on the left, when clicked, will display this list of menu buttons:

• Welcome
• News*
• Calendar*
• Facilities
• Officers
• Contact Us
• Resources
• Members Only
• Gallery and Guestbook
• More Info
• State Association
• Elks National Foundation Site

* The News and Calendar are the two most popular pages according to our members. The News page has links to:

• Our Facebook Group
• The latest issue of the Lodge Lowdown published each Sunday
• A clickable list of our last 20 eBlasts
• The Queen of Hearts board
• How to join our email list
• The Elk’s Tale (Lodge Bulletin for members only with an account at elks.org)

The Calendar page lists all our events from our Lodge Master Calendar in Agenda mode. Just click on the event and details will pop up. At that point you can even save the calendar item to your own Google Calendar. There are also Week and Month views.  This calendar is updated as any changes are made to the event details and is the same information displayed on our main website and Facebook Group.

You can even access our Lodge By-Laws in the Members Only page if you have an account at elks.org.

To conveniently access go.veroelks.com at the push of a button, put it on the home screen of your mobile device.  If you don’t know how to do that, this article will show you how.

Calling all parents, grandparents, guardians or friends of Vero Beach Elk members. Do you know a deserving Vero Beach child or relative between the ages of 9-13 that would love to attend the fantastic Florida Elks Youth Camp?

On June 21, 2020 through June 27, 2020, our Vero Beach Elks Lodge will once again be sponsoring area children ages 9 through 13 to attend the Florida Elks Youth Camp in scenic, Umatilla, Florida. All children are welcome! We also award scholarships to underprivileged Vero Beach children that have been referred through local agencies, shelters and the Indian River County School District.

Campers are given tuition free scholarships to enjoy a week of housing in the modern, air conditioned cabins, family style meals, swimming, canoeing, aquatic center, campfires, arts & crafts, a rope course and lots of fun, exercise and fresh air. This year, our Lodge has once again established a goal to bus 45 children to this beautiful and modern 405 acre complex in the rolling hills of central Florida, just south of the Ocala National Forest. To register a child simply utilize the online application at feyc.org as soon as possible. Space is limited and fills up quickly! The Vero Beach Elk member in good standing would supply their name and member number as the child’s sponsor.

It is through the generosity of the Florida Elks Association, our Vero Beach Lodge #1774 and donations from our members that tuition free scholarships and bus transportation has been made possible for our campers. If you wish to make a full ($180.00) or partial tuition donation to sponsor a child or a donation to our bus transportation costs, please make your check to “Vero Beach Elks Lodge #1774” with the notation that you wish to make a donation to the summer camp program or visit our lodge website to make a donation online.

Wish to take a virtual tour of the camp? Further information, videos and pictures can be found at feyc.org. As we draw closer to camp time, volunteers will be needed to make bag lunches, snack bags, bus chaperones and the “send off to camp” light breakfast for our campers and their parents/guardians.

Submitted by Kathi Miller, Lodge Secretary, Elks Youth Camp Chairman

On Friday March 6, 2020 the Vero Beach Elks Lodge #1774 will present “A Neil Diamond Tribute” at 7:00 pm starring Neil Diamond look and sound alike Keith Allynn. Experience the feel of Neil as Allynn unveils the story of Diamond’s life through Neil’s own songs from the ‘60s through today, while weaving through his own comedic career change from an international top 10 Elvis, to Neil Diamond, all for the love of a woman.

Click here for a video of Keith performing Sweet Caroline.

At 6:00 pm the Elks will host an Open House. Those interested in membership will be able to take advantage of our Elk for a Buck application fee. Click here to learn more about Elks Membership.

Gourmet sandwiches will be available for purchase beginning at 6:00 pm and during the show intermission.

After the performance, music and dancing by The DJ Guy will continue until 11:00 pm in our Lounge.

Tickets are available for purchase by calling the Lodge at 772-562-8450.  You’ may reserve a table of  6 or 8 right near the stage. Tickets are $20 per person. Doors open at 6:00 pm for the tribute show.

Proceeds from this event will support our Lodge’s local scholarship fund.

Directions to the Lodge are available here.

Did you know that the Elks National Drug Awareness Program (DAP) is the largest volunteer drug awareness program in the United States? Visit the Elks DAP Home Page for an overview of the program. Then click the image below to visit the new Elks Kids Zone website.

An article in the December 2019 Grand Lodge Newsletter asks:

Are you smarter than a fifth grader when it comes to issues facing today’s youth? Why don’t you visit the DAP’s recently released website, elksteenzone.org, and find out? Take a look at the lessons, read the blogs, watch the videos, play the trivia game, and share the site with teens, parents, grandparents, and teachers. The more we arm ourselves with information, the more effective we will be to help our children choose the correct life path and steer clear of drugs.

We ask that you review the above websites and share that information with those in your sphere of influence. If you’re not already, it will help you to “Be proud to be an Elk.”

This Fall our Lodge distributed 990 dictionaries to the following 12 schools located in Indian River County.

• Beachland Elementary School
• Citrus Elementary School
• Dodgertown Elementary School
• Glendale Elementary School
• Imagine School at South Vero
• Indian River Academy
• North County Charter
• Osceola Magnet School
• Rosewood Magnet School
• St. Helen School
• St Peter’s Academy
• Vero Beach Elementary School

At virtually all the schools we delivered the dictionaries (A Student’s Dictionary and Gazetteer) at an assembly of third graders.  During the first part of the assembly our Lodge members ask the students why we’re giving them a dictionary today. After receiving a number of good answers, we distribute the dictionaries and then conduct a brief overview of the dictionary starting with the Table of Contents and review some of the additional features in the Gazetteer such as the longest word in the English language, the Fifty United States, Sign Language and Braille.

We include in each dictionary a bookmark with a drug awareness message put there by our mascot, Elroy the Elk.  We asked that the students read the message about drug awareness and think about what it means to them every time they use the bookmark. After asking the students if they would like to meet our mascot, we then bring out Elroy the Elk to meet the students and to take pictures with them and faculty, creating a memorable impression and excitement about using the dictionary.  These photos usually find their way to the school’s Facebook page.

In all, 13 Lodge members were involved in the highly successful dictionary deliveries. A special thanks to Ken Roberts, Lynn Bergeron and Jack Houlihan, PDDGER who alternated playing Elroy the Elk at the assemblies.

Pictured below is Elroy the Elk with students and teacher at Osceola Magnet School.

Submitted by Jim Rannazzisi, PER

Dictionary Project Chairman