u The lodge’s committees are hard at work all year. Pictured are (from left) Youth Activities Committee Chairman Lucille Tidmarsh, Lapsation and Orientation Committee Chairman Marti Johnson, Drug Awareness Committee Chairman Penny Heredia, and PER Judith McGrath.
r
Pictured at the 9/11 memorial located at London Bridge Beach in Lake Havasu City are (from left) lodge member and Lake Havasu City Mayor Mark Nexsen, ER Tim Fairbank, Americanism Committee Chairman and PER Robert Piché, and lodge member and Lake Havasu City City Council Member Margaret Nyberg. These four lodge members were instrumental in the memorial’s creation.
LAKE HAVASU CITY
them. We have thirty-seven PERs today and they serve as an informal advisory council.”
During Fairbank’s time as exalted ruler, lodge business meetings have typically attracted about fifty mem- bers; charitable donations have been listed in each monthly newsletter by dollar amount; and the first lodge survey of members was conducted to help lodge officers understand the lodge’s demographics and member desires. The results of the survey showed that members wanted no smoking during mealtimes. Conse- quently, the largest part of the dining room was designated as a nonsmoking area, a move that was well-received by lodge members.
Community The lodge’s various committee
members work just as hard as its officers. For example, when new members weren’t volunteering for events immediately upon joining the lodge, Lapsation and Orientation Committee Chairman Marti Johnson
48
became proactive about getting them involved. She contacted the newest group of new members and asked if they would work for a specific event. Twenty-six agreed to volunteer. Drug Awareness Committee Chairman Penny Heredia has been focused on involving members on the drug awareness front, too. When school funding cutbacks in local public schools left only half of all local elementary school children with access to art classes, Heredia found a way for the lodge to help by inviting children who were taking part in Lake Havasu City’s Parks and Recreation Program to participate in the lodge’s Drug Awareness Poster Contest. “We received 590 entries in 2011,” Heredia says, “and half came from the city’s Parks and Recreation Program.” The work of the members of the Youth Activities Committee reaches a great many children in the Lake Havasu City community also. Youth Activities Committee Chairman Lucille Tidmarsh’s committee binder won first place nationally in the 2011 Youth Week Brochure Contest. Of the committee’s fifty-nine projects last year, its annual flagship event
involves renting the city’s handsome aquatic center for a day and inviting the public to a free swim and free refreshments. This event draws an average of eight hundred children and parents each year. Last year, many attendees were able to meet lodge member and Lake Havasu City Mayor Mark Nexsen, who served hot dogs at the event. “No other group in town rents the pool for an event like this,” Nexsen says.
Country
In addition to helping the commu- nity, the Lake Havasu City Lodge places high importance on patriotism and regard for the nation’s veterans. A large number of the lodge’s members have served in the US armed forces, and members of the Americanism Committee and the Veterans Service Committee help remind members and nonmembers that freedom isn’t free. For example, it was work by members of the Lake Havasu City Lodge that helped make the 9/11 memorial located in Lake Havasu City at London Bridge Beach possible. Funded by donations and completed in 2007, the memorial is now the site of
A P R I L 2 0 1 2
PHOTOS: ASAY JOHNSON
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76