Members Flock to the Lodge’s Social Clubs
COMMODORE Eduardo Perez swears he’s not a matchmaker. But he can’t deny what happens in the lodge’s Yacht Club. “In the last few years,” he says, “quite a few people have met their mate in the Yacht Club. It’s a good place to meet good people, and we’ve had several marriages in the group.” Perez is currently serving a two-year term as the club’s chairman. Membership in the Yacht Club is open only to Elks. Owning a boat is not required (only 20 percent of members have boats), but all Yacht Club mem- bers must pay the annual membership fee of $20, and they are expected to support the club’s numerous fund-rais- ers. Moonlight cruises, a boat regatta, champagne brunches on shore, golf tour- naments, and dozens of other activities attract new members and invigorate
Lodge member and lodge Yacht Club Commodore Eduardo Perez is shown here readying his boat for the water.
longtime members. Since being founded as a lodge social club in 1998, the Yacht Club has raised more than $55,000 for numerous charities, and as of 2011, it had about eight hundred members.
Other lodge social clubs are the Dart League, Fishing Club, Gentlemen’s Poker Club, Men’s Golf Club, Senior Bowling League, Travel Club, and Vagabonds RV Club. In 2011, lodge social club fund-raising events supported a wide variety of organizations, including the Elks Na- tional Foundation, Meals on Wheels, Ronald McDonald
House Charities, a hospice, victims of domestic abuse, disabled veterans, city youth programs, and a humane society. Each social club elects its own officers, sets its own schedules, and holds its own events inside and outside the lodge.
“Our social clubs are very important,” says ER Tim Fairbank. “We all know that birds of a feather flock together. When people are with their friends, they gen- erally work well together. All of our clubs do some fantastic fund-raising for charities.” —ANEETA BROWN
l PDD and Long- range Planning Committee member Richard Conway (left) and Treas. and Long-range Plan- ning Committee Chairman Richard Ross review the plans to a proposed lodge expansion project that will give the lodge greater dining capacity.
award in 2003. As he recalls, there were no complaints at that event. But complaints are always rare at the Lake Havasu City Lodge. Lodge members are too busy laughing. Last October, for instance, many lodge members attended the lodge’s Frac- tured Fairy Tails Dinner fund-raiser. The irreverent musical production, which was directed by lodge member Dennis Nelson and consisted of a well- rehearsed cast and crew of seventy- seven people, featured such perform- ers as PER Asay Johnson. Johnson, who has been named Officer of the Year twice, Elk of the Year twice, and has been made an honorary member of the ladies auxiliary, portrayed Little Red Riding Hood during the musical. Last October, as Johnson took the stage, with a white wig and frothy red tutu and tights, he was surrounded by the warmth and laughter of friends— all Elks and all from Lake Havasu City, Arizona. ■
PHOTO: ASAY JOHNSON T H E E L K S M A G A Z I N E 51
PHOTO: ASAY JOHNSON
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