E L K S N A T I O N A L F O U N D A T I O N (Continued from preceding page)
increased graduation rate and the great level of lodge involvement in the project. “Even though you can’t bring a thousand Elks into the school, it’s a full lodge project. Everybody’s backing it and supporting it and bringing ideas to meetings and talking about it.”
Paying It Forward
Although the primary goal of Pantry Partners for Success is to increase the graduation rate at Millcreek High School, there is more to the project than that. St. George “Dixie” Lodge members are also hoping that their example will teach the students to give back to the community and show them the value of giving to those in need. Hence the program’s motto: “Use some if you need some, share some if you have some,” or US for short. The lodge’s hope is that students will “pay it forward” whenever they are in a position to do so, and Project Manager Betty Archambault knows all about this firsthand.
“When I was a single parent of two, raising my children, teaching school, and working for an education,”
It’s Your Business (Continued from page 8)
Morningstar, Inc., about half of them from rent. REITs, therefore, are a staple of income investing, providing bond-like returns with some stock-like appreciation potential.
Among the leaders in this area are
Simon Property Group (SPG), which specializes in retailers, such as regional malls; Equity Residential (EQR), which owns nearly 500 apartment buildings; and Boston Properties (BXP), which operates office buildings in such major markets as New York City and San Francisco. There are also many mutual funds and ETFs that offer portfolios of REITs that are diversified to reduce risk.
Currencies Currencies ride a roller coaster, and there are few individual investors who
72
The ENF awards Impact Grants to help lodges significantly address unmet needs in Elks communities. Impact Grants are competitive grants worth up to $10,000, and all lodges are eligible to apply. To find out more about Impact Grants, visit
www.elks.org/enf/community.
Archambault recalls, “the Elks and Emblem Club showed up at my door with boxes of food. I knew at that moment I would someday give back to others the kindness given to me.” And she and the St. George “Dixie” Lodge have certainly done that. Including the Impact Grant funds provided by the Elks National Foundation, community support, in-kind dona- tions, and food bank support, the St. George “Dixie” Lodge’s Pantry Part- ners for Success project gave away more than $78,000 in supplies in 2010. And there’s more to come. The Salvation Army and the Assistance League plan on becoming involved with the project, too. Meanwhile, the students for whom
the project was started are demonstra- bly appreciative of lodge members’ efforts on their behalf. When the supply truck for the pantry arrives, they rush out to help unload the truck
and stay after to help clean up the pantry. When they are able, they replace the food they have taken from the pantry, and on occasion, some of the students have volunteered to help lodge members with lodge activities, such as a lodge rummage sale. A few students even volunteered with lodge members to help the nearly 6,000 runners in the St. George Marathon. Then there are the many expres- sions of thanks the lodge has received from Millcreek High School students. From the numerous thank-you notes to the graduation day letters of appreciation, the students are eager to show their gratitude to the lodge. Trustee Bud Thomas also feels thankful—to the students. “I am so grateful to have the opportunity to be a part of this project,” he says. “I am getting back more than I am giving.” The story of US is turning out to be quite an inspiring story. ■
give them a thought. But funds targeted at currencies offer specula- tive profits to aggressive investors and defense against change to conservative investors. Funds range from PowerShares DB US Dollar Index Bullish (UUP), a straightforward play on the value of the greenback versus a basket of currencies of its trade partners, to ProShares UltraShort Euro (EUO), designed to go down in value twice as much as the Euro goes up (and vice versa). You can find ETFs that target all of the world’s major currencies and offer options for bulls and bears alike. While speculators can use these instruments to place bets intended to pay off within a few months or years, they also can be put to work by more conservative investors in a number of ways. One reason a conservative investor might consider a currency
fund is to hedge against unexpected increases in the cost of foreign travel. The British pound sterling, for example, has traded as low as $1.60 in recent months, having tumbled from $2 just a few years ago. A traveler who is worried that the sterling will bounce back before a trip to England over the summer can buy shares of CurrencyShares British Pound Sterling (FXB) now and sell them just before the trip. If sterling rises to $2 in the interim, an investment of $5,000 will be worth $6,250—which is what will be needed for the same itinerary of hotel rooms, restaurant meals, and shopping trips in London. These new opportunities can tempt gamblers to fritter away their capital on highly speculative themes. But they can be used responsibly to increase a portfolio’s returns even as they reduce its risk. ■
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