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BETH N. GRAYBrooksville's Lodge 2582 does well by doing well: raising more than $500,000 for projects such as summer camp and scholarships.
BROOKSVILLE - Hernando County residents like a tasty, reasonably priced dinner out, and they love to play bingo.
Brooksville Elks Lodge 2582, which celebrates its 25th anniversary this weekend, knows that for a fact.
By catering to those desires, the organization has raised more than a half-million dollars over the past quarter century.
The money has provided scholarships for Hernando County students and donations to charities near and far: summer camps, a Just Say No drug awareness program for youth, the Salvation Army, Thanksgiving dinner baskets and Christmas gifts for needy families.
Elks are committed to giving.
"Basically, it's a charitable organization," said trustee Fred Graham.
Lodge life is "very fulfilling," says one of the Brooksville Elks' longest-serving members, Harry Smith, who joined 22 years ago and has been secretary for the last five years. "You help people in the community."
Smith's favorite Elks endeavor is summer camp for kids, launched five years ago.
The 360-acre Elks Florida Youth Camp at Umatilla has an Olympic-size swimming pool, a $4-million auditorium, archery and golf driving ranges, a lake for fishing and 40 air-conditioned lodges for campers. Over the last five years, the local lodge has sent more than 300 kids ages 6 to 18 for a week's camping experience, Graham said. The lodge picks up the tab.
"The most rewarding thing to me is to take kids up to the camp," Smith said. "Sometimes you have to put the sneakers or the socks on them, and sometimes they don't have enough underwear. It's one week of the year they can find some kind of fulfillment."
While the local Elks lodge has never struggled to exist, its beginning in 1978 was modest compared with today's numbers and facility.
The 125 charter members met variously at the Spring Hill Veterans of Foreign Wars post, the Hernando County Fairgrounds and in the community room at SunTrust Bank in Brooksville.
When Smith joined, the lodge had built a modest clubhouse at 14494 Cortez Blvd. west of Brooksville, financed by profits from its twice weekly dinners, which attracted as many as 700 diners a week, he recalled.
"At that time, there were no restaurants in the area," he noted.
About 15 years ago, the lodge built an addition to the clubhouse, doubling its size, and membership has ballooned to some 800.
While there are a lot more restaurants in Hernando today, the Elks' upscale atmosphere and tasty dinners - $8 for salad through dessert and as many as five entrees from which to choose - still attract 115 diners on summer Fridays and 150 when seasonal residents are around, Graham said. The dinners are open to the public.
The kitchen will go all out Saturday when it serves up its prime rib and chicken cordon bleu silver anniversary dinner while members recount their benevolence and wind up with dancing to live music. Tickets are $15 for the semiformal event, which begins with a social hour at 3 p.m.; they are available at the lodge office from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
While dinner proceeds primarily pay the lodge's bills, it is bingo, initiation fees for members and dues that fatten the pot for charities, Smith said.
Thursday night bingo attracts 140 to 160 players, Graham said.
Bingo proceeds have enabled development of a network of charity recipients over the years, each approved by the national organization, Graham said.
In the college scholarship program, $125,000 has been awarded over the years. Two young people are selected annually, based on academic performance and need, and given $1,000 the first year and $500 each of three succeeding years for their education.
The students are monitored. "They've got to report to us. They send us a letter and their marks. ... I've been very happy in our selection. We haven't had a failure in the bunch. We seem to pick out some pretty good children," Graham said.
The lodge also is devoted to veterans. Once a month, members visit the James A. Haley VA Medical Center in Tampa and the Baldomero Lopez State Veterans Nursing Home in Land O'Lakes, providing patients with personal care kits, chitchat and refreshments - sometimes a barbecue.
The lodge donates financially to the Angelus in Hudson, which houses, feeds and educates developmentally disabled people.
And it contributes to DayStar and the Salvation Army to help those agencies buy food and gifts for children. Special Olympics, the Elks Therapy Service Soccer Shot and youth football also benefit from Brooksville Elks money.
"A lot of people haven't got the faintest notion of what we do," said Graham.
Perhaps the 25th anniversary celebration will help get out the message and attract more members, he said.