A large group of local organizations received an early Christmas present on Monday, Dec. 6, at the Elks Lodge in Wooster – in the midst of heavy snowfall. Over the past seven years, the Elks have provided $560,220 to the community, serving organizations who work to improve lives and ease suffering. This year the Elks donated $38,000, which is a slight increase from last years contribution of $36,000.
Living true to their motto, Elks care, Elks share, the lodge hosted a gathering to hand out checks and celebrate another successful year.
In order to make such generous donations, the group works until October 31, and then close their books and determine the contributions for the year. Thus, their event always ends up near Christmas.
The majority of this money is from our charity ticket sales. We do have them in the club, it is a social club. They are legal tickets, and you are then required to donate a certain percentage of the tickets to charities. We do some special fundraising through the organization too. It gets added to those funds, explained Andy Catanzarite, treasurer of the Elks. Its a lot of money, but we feel great giving it away.
Their emphasis, however, is on keeping the funds local. Catanzarite said that they decided a couple of years ago to gear their fundraising efforts towards veterans, youth and other key organizations in the community.
We try to get new members, let the community know we are more than a social club, (that) we do community activities. Everybody thats a member here is basically from the community so its nice to keep the money local and get it right back out, Catanzarite added.
This year, the organizations they donated to included Boy Scouts, Cerebral Palsy Fund, Chuck Cicconetti Scholarship, Elks National Foundation, Every Womans House, Hilltop Villa Veterans Home, Ida Sue School, National MPS (Mucopolysaccharide) Society, People to People Ministries, Salvation Army, Shriners Crippled Children Hospital, The Village Network, Viola Startzman Free Clinic, Wayne County Committee for Crippled Children and Adults, Wooster Youth Baseball, Wooster Youth Football Association, Wooster Soccer Association, Wooster Lacrosse Club, Wooster Emblem Club, Field of Dreams, Shrine Transportation Fund, Rett Syndrome, Ohio Elks/Veterans, Red Cross, Deer Fund, Elks Memorial Service and Wooster Rotary.
Each organization had a representative who collected the check, and then provided a brief description of their purpose and endeavors. Following the distribution of checks, all of the recipients gathered in front of the Christmas tree for a group photo, providing a subtle reminder that each work individually and together to provide holistic services for community members. The tree may have been their backdrop, but the lights and decor paled in comparison.
Cerebral Palsy (CP) and Elks National Foundation are obviously our two biggest ones, Catanzarite continued. This lodge and Ohio Elks as a whole has accepted Cerebral Palsy as their, so to speak, target fundraiser .We are still in the midst of our CP fundraiser. We certainly take donations for that.
Further, since they do spread their money out to other organizations, Catanzarite said he hopes that their efforts have made a difference over the past seven years.
We always get nice cards back from everybody we donate to, Catanzarite concluded.
