A friendly rivalry between the members of the Highland Elks Lodge and Dart League worked to the benefit of the community after more than $3,000 worth of food was collected to be used to create Christmas baskets for area families.
According to Beth Smith, each year, the Highland Elks Lodge puts together and delivers Christmas baskets to families in need.
“Normally the money is raised to do this through donations and fundraisers, but I came up with the idea for our Dart League who meets Monday nights to issue a challenge to get the members to bring in canned goods and the Dart League would challenge the lodge members,” Smith said. “It was cute because the league members would start bringing in canned goods and so the lodge members started asking what was going on. I told them it was part of the challenge that had been issued in the bulletin for the month.”
Soon after, as word spread, lodge members began to form their team to try and beat the Dart League.
“They started calling themselves the Outcasts because they didn’t know what was going on and they started texting people, calling people and recruiting members for their team and that the Outcasts had to beat the Dart League,” Smith said.
The result was the Outcasts were selected to be the winners when we held the final day of the challenge.
“Because of this, I don’t think the Elks Lodge is going to have to shop for many non-perishable items,” Smith said with a laugh. “It’s also important to know that Harps donated quite a bit of canned goods.”
According to Billie Jo Suiters, Christmas Basket Chair for the Elks Lodge this year, the challenge was just one step in the right direction toward gearing up for the main event.
“Right now, we’re doing a Christmas Toy Drive. We’re asking for unwrapped gifts for children between the ages of 5 to 12 boys or girls and all those toys will go with our Christmas baskets. We’ll do 80 baskets. We’ll do 65 families and 15 seniors,” Suiters said. “We’re trying to get that wrapped up because when we do the baskets, it’s not just food.”
Of the 80 baskets which will be created, 65 of them will have presents accompanying the food which will be delivered Dec. 24.
Suiters said for families who do not wish to receive a food basket but are seeking help with gifts, an angel tree will also be set up at the lodge.
“If they don’t want the food, they can be put on our angel tree and request a gift costing $25 or less. That is for kids ages 17 and younger,” Suiters said.
The deadline to register for a Christmas basket is Dec. 15.
“If anybody is interested in a Christmas basket there will be an application at the Elks Lodge for them to fill out. We’re going to try to cross-reference those with other organizations helping families this Christmas to try to avoid cross-over because we want as many families to be helped as possible this year. It has been hard on everyone with Covid so the more families we can help as a community, the better,” Suiters said.
To register for the Elks Lodge Christmas Basket, contact the Elks Lodge by calling 870- 257-3388.
Lauren is a an award-winning journalist who decided after 10 years of newspaper experience to venture out. Hallmark Times was born.
