Elks give Thanksgiving meals to 100 families
Butler Elks Lodge 170 and a group of volunteers spread wishes for a happy Thanksgiving to 100 families Saturday.
Using a $5,000 grant from Elks National Foundation, the lodge’s nonprofit organization, this is the third year the lodge has given food for Thanksgiving dinner to families who registered.
This year the lodge, at 80 Kaufman Drive, provided a turkey and a box of side dishes and extra food for additional meals to each family. Turkeys were provided the first two years.
“We have a lot of food,” said Gary Martin, the lodge’s exulted ruler. “We’re supporting 100 families for Thanksgiving and beyond.”
He said Sprankle’s Neighborhood Market in Saxonburg provided most of the food at cost. Harlow Farms provided 500 pounds of potatoes, and a few items were purchased at grocery stores.
Lodge members and some of their friends volunteered to carry and load the boxes and turkeys for the families.
Pam Neely of Butler picked up a turkey and a box of fixings for Thanksgiving dinner with her husband and daughter.
“I’m very thankful for what they do. It’s a blessing,” Neely said. She said she also received a turkey from the Elks last year.
The lodge scheduled 20 families every hour to come and collect their dinners from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Some people made an arrangement with the Elks to pick up meals for other families who registered but couldn’t go to the lodge.
Among the enthusiastic volunteers was Madison Herdlein, of Butler.
“I heard about it on social media and volunteered,” she said.
Herdlein said she enjoyed helping, and the work will count toward credit in an introduction to social work class she is taking at Butler County Community College, where she is majoring in social work.
Lodge secretary Dean Weiland said the 550-member lodge makes annual donations from fundraisers to the foundation. The lodge has donated $38,939 through the current funding cycle, which ends in April, he said. That money is then donated to scholarship funds, parent-teacher organizations at local schools, athletic teams at Butler and Knoch high schools, several food banks, Robin’s Home, Cub Scouts, fire departments and other organizations.
The lodge and its members are looking forward to showing their holiday spirit again on Nov. 26, during Butler’s Spirit of Christmas parade. “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” will be the theme of their float. Lodge members will be dressed as characters from the Dr. Seuss classic story as they hand out candy to children while Weiland sings Christmas carols.
“It’s going to be cool,” Martin said.
