Our primary charities are the FLORIDA ELKS YOUTH CAMP and the FLORIDA ELKS MOBILE THERAPY UNITS. These Facility and their staffs are fully funded by the Florida Elks, no state or federal funding is used. The mobile therapy units are rated as the best of it's kind, dedicated to treating disabled and crippled children of Florida. If you or someone you know has a child in need of special care or treatment please contact your nearest Elks Lodge in Florida. There is no charge for treatment. To qualify as a patient you need only to be a child from infant to sixteen years of age, be a resident of Florida, and in need of special care or rehabilitation.
CIVIC AND COMMUNITY AFFAIRS
Americanism - Drug Awareness - Community Welfare - Community Affairs - Law and Order - Elks Hospital - Elks Clinics - Handicap Children - Summer Camps - Scholarships - Poster Contests - Essay Contests - Blood Drives - Boy and Girl Scouts - Veterans Service
FORMAL
ORGANIZATION AND NAME
THE Order of Elks was formally organize February 16,1868, in the City of New York. Its
full corporate name is "Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks of the United States
of America." Its declared purposes are to practice its four cardinal virtues,
Charity, Justice, Brotherly Love and Fidelity; to promote the welfare and enhance the
happiness of its members; to quicken the spirit of American patriotism; and to cultivate
good fellowship.
The animal from which the Order took its name was chosen because a number of its
attributes were deemed typical of those to be cultivated by members of the fraternity .
The elk is distinctively an American animal. It habitually lives in herds. The largest of
our native quadrupeds, it is yet fleet of foot and graceful in movement. It is quick and
keen of perception; and while it is usually gentle and even timorous, it is strong and
valiant in defense of its own.
A representation of the majestic head of the male, with its spreading antlers, was adopted
as the first badge of the Order; and is still the most conspicuous element of its
copyrighted; fraternal emblem.
SUBORDINATE LODGES-WHERE PERMITTED
Subordinate Lodges of the Order are permitted to be established only in cities which are
under the governmental sovereignty of the United States, and which have within their
respective corporate limits not less than five thousand inhabitants, with certain
exceptions under the control of the Grand Exalted Ruler. The name of a Lodge is that of
the City in which it is located, with its assigned serial number.
QUALIFICATIONS FOR MEMBERSHIP
STATE ASSOCIATIONS
THE ELKS COLORS* . . .
INITIATION
Naturally the ritual of initiation is the most important, as it is the most elaborate, of
any Lodge ceremonial. It is designed to instruct and inspire the initiate; and, in an
appropriate setting, to secure his assumption of the solemn and binding obligation of
membership.
It is conducted throughout with dignity and decorum. It is wholly devoid of any feature
which will embarrass or annoy the candidate, or subject him to ridicule or to any
discomfort, physical or mental.
ELEVEN O'CLOCK TOAST
MEMORIAL SERVICE
FLAG DAY SERVICE
It is to be expected that an organization dedicated to patriotic service should seek to
promote a proper knowledge of, and respect for, the American Flag, and all that it
represents. The Order of Elks has done this in many ways. Perhaps the most effective of
its prescribed activities is the Flag Day Service. Each Subordinate Lodge is required to
conduct this service annually on June l4th, the anniversary of the birth of the American
Flag.
The idea of a Flag Day Service was first suggested to our Order by the then Grand Exalted
Ruler at the 1907 Grand Lodge Session in Philadelphia. Of the dates submitted for
consideration at that time, June 14 was adopted by the session and was called "Elks
Flag Day.'' The following year, in Dallas , the Grand Lodge approved a ritual for the Flag
Day ceremony.
The 1911 Grand Lodge Session at Atlantic City made the observance of Flag Day mandatory
for Subordinate Lodges by the adoption of Section 229 of the Statutes: "It shall be
the duty of each Subordinate Lodge to hold the service known as `Flag Day Services' at the
time and in the manner prescribed by the ritual of the Order. "
Later on - at the Grand Lodge Session in Atlantic City in 1930 - there was added to this
statute an amendment, reading: "The Grand Exalted Ruler may, in exceptional cases and
for good cause, grant a dispensation for a different day or to any two or more Lodges to
hold such services jointly."
It was not until August 3,1949 that the President of the United States signed Public Law
203, designating June 14 as Flag Day . Thus our Order was not only the first fraternal
organization to celebrate Flag Day, but had made this ceremony mandatory long years before
the date on which the observance became a nation-wide practice by legal decree.
The ritual for the occasion is an elaborate one and it is quite generally conducted as a
public ceremonial. It is designed to be informative as well as inspirational; and the
colorful pageantry provided lends itself admirably to the achievement of these objectives.
MOTHER'S DAY
The sentiments which are naturally and universally inherent in the relationship of mother
and child, have led to the designation of the second Sunday in May of each year as
Mother's Day, upon which all people are encouraged to pay appropriate tribute to
motherhood and to perform acts of filial affection and devotion.
The Grand Lodge, by resolution, has accorded permission to Subordinate Lodges to celebrate
Mother's Day, if they so desire" either for their own members or for the public. A
ritual has been provided which they may use for the occasion; but its use is not
mandatory.
FUNERAL SERVICES
It not infrequently happens that the family of a deceased member of the Order desire his
Lodge to conduct a funeral service incident to his interment, either in supplement of the
usual religious rites, or as the only ceremonial to be used.
A ritual for such a service has been provided, to be conducted by the officers and members
of the Lodge. Without any suggestion of sectarianism, it is beautiful and impressive, and
it is appropriately designed for use in the Lodge room, in a funeral home, or at the
grave.
This ceremonial is designated - "Lodge of Sorrow."
OTHER OCCASIONAL CEREMONIES
Under Grand Lodge authority other rituals have been provided for various occasions which
are appropriate to be marked by such fraternal participation. These include the dedication
of an Elk building, an Elk's Rest or burial plot, or a public building, and the
celebration of the laying of the cornerstone of such structures, and other like occasions.
CHARITABLE AND PATRIOTIC
SERVICE
THE primary object of the Order is the practice of Charity in its broadest significance,
not merely that of alms giving. Its service in this wide field necessarily involves a
great diversity of activities which naturally are influenced by local conditions. It
therefore early adopted the policy of permitting its Subordinate Lodges to select for
themselves the benevolent endeavors in which they severally desired to engage, rather than
to require them to participate solely in national projects undertaken by the Order as
whole.
However, throughout its history, the Order has endeavored to maintain itself in readiness,
as a national body, to extend its aid in cases of major catastrophe and misfortune.
Through its official agencies in all parts of the country, it has been able to render such
assistance with a promptness, effectiveness and lack of red tape, which have tremendously
enhanced the practical helpfulness of its adopted measures.
For many years the aggregate expenditures of the Subordinate Lodges for charitable
purposes have run into millions of dollars each year, covering humanitarian services of
infinite variety. Among the most usual of such activities may be mentioned the following:
food to the hungry; shelter for the homeless; clothing and fuel for the needy; milk for
the under-nourished babies; medical attention to the sick; baskets to the poor at
Christmas and Thanksgiving; outings for underprivileged children; entertainments for
shut-ins; education for young people; artificial limbs for the maimed; hospital beds; free
clinics; night schools. And the list might be indefinitely extended. All of the State Elks
Associations have undertaken important and extensive charitable works within their own
several jurisdictions, determined by the particular conditions therein existing and the
preferences of their constituent members. They include rehabilitation of crippled
children, treatment of indigent tubercular patients, provision for scholarships to worthy
students, maintenance of orphans, boy s'camps , training of the blind, eyeglasses for
needy boys and girls, cerebral palsy clinics, cancer clinics, and other state wide
projects of similar character and of equal worthiness, which are being carried on as
continuing activities . No history of social service in the United States would be
complete without an inspiring chapter devoted to the achievements of the Order of Elks in
this field.
In the field of patriotic service, the Order of Elks has likewise proved itself an agency
of singular force and effectiveness .
Organized at a time when the bitterness and rancor of the Civil War had left their wounds
on every heart on both sides of the Mason and Dixon line, the Order patiently taught its
members through the years, drawn as they were from all sections of the country, that
bitterness ought to be sweetened; that rancor ought to be assuaged; those wounds ought to
be healed.
Through the widening influence of its members, thus bound together by the ties of
brotherhood, and thus fraternally schooled, the restoration of national accord was
assuredly hastened, and a patriotic service of superlative importance was thus performed.
Never an altar is erected in all its jurisdiction, but that the first emblem to be
reverently placed beside it is the American Flag. No one is permitted to stand in front of
that flag and altar and assume the obligation of membership unless he be an American
citizen. At the beginning of every Lodge session a member attends he is required to renew his
pledge of allegiance to that flag and all for which it stands.