If its May, the Orange Elks will honor the youth of our community by showcasing the many programs the Lodge has for our young people.
All our guests were treated to a spaghetti dinner prepared and served by our volunteer cooks.
Our Master of Ceremonies, Loyal Knight Danny Salas welcomed our award winners, their parents, our guests and lodge members. Danny gave a thumb nail of all the youth activities that the lodge has lined up for this Elk year. Our Boy and Girl Scout Troop 1475 presented our flag and lead the Pledge of Allegiance. Our Boy Scout troop #1475 has produced fourteen Eagle Scouts since 2006.
Teresa “Tita” Smith, Mayor of Orange, presented and read a Youth Week Appreciation Proclamation.
Our guest speaker was Ray Lozano from the Elks National Drug Awareness Program. Ray spoke about the Elks consistently getting the message to our youth to be drug free and that the Elks are the only organization that is helping youth to be drug free.
On Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, Ray and several Orange Elks visited three junior high schools speaking to over 900 students about the dangers of drug abuse.
Our Dictionary Program Chairman Al Montano stated that on the third Wednesday of October our lodge will distribute dictionaries to all the third graders in the city of Orange. In thirteen years we have delivered over twenty eight thousand dictionaries to the third graders in the city of Orange.
Presenting the awards were Miss City of Orange Eileen Kim and Elroy T. Elk. Elroy is the face of our Orange Lodge and our mascot for all our youth activities.
Hoop Shoot Chairmen, Jack and Marcia Ferraro, presented the Boys and Girls Hoop Shoot winners. The winners received a trophy and a Hoop Shoot basketball.
L – R
Elroy, Jack, Dana Lyon, Eileen, Trevor Kelly and Marcia.
Drug Awareness Chairman, Mike Cash presented the winners of the Poster, Essay Contest and Video Contest.
Our essay winner.
L – R
Mike, Natalie Zepahua, Dannt and Tita
The Video Contest winners in junior high where from Cerro Villa MS.
Canyon HS won the high school division.
Chris Michaelis, Americanism Chairman, stated this year the essay theme was “ Why are Veterans American Hero’s”! This helps promote Americanism and each of our winners received a $100 Scholarship and a Certificate of Appreciation.
L – R
Eileen, Jay Turner, Aubrey Valdez, Juliet Otellio, Cole Morgan and Elroy
.
This year each of our eight Scholarship Winners received a $500 check and had their bio read. This included their extracurricular activities, community service, work experience, GPS’s and where they are headed to college. Andrew Kalasky, in addition to being one of our lodges winner was an ENF National Semi-Finalists scholarship.
L – R
E R Stephanie Logan, Elroy, Andrew Kalasky and Eileen
Thanks to Tom Ruff and Mike Cash for the photos!