Golf, cooking challenge, trap shoot, dance among the events being planned
(Gonzales) – The Seguin Elks Lodge is inviting the community to neighboring Gonzales for a day of celebration. Local members will be joining others from the 57 other lodges across the state for its annual Texas Elks Children’s Services, Inc. Homecoming.
In town promoting the event and visiting with the Seguin Elks is Jim Stansbury, the Texas Elks State Association President Elect. Stansbury and his wife Chris Stansbury. The couple, while on its way to Gonzales, stopped by the Seguin lodge to congratulate it on its 110 years of giving and to oversee its ongoing charity efforts.
Chris Stansbury, who also represents the Texas Elks District Leadership team as the Southwest District Deputy Grand Exalted Ruler, says the Seguin lodge continues to do an incredible job of following its principles of charity, justice, brotherly love and fidelity. She says that all while growing its local chapter.
“Membership is a big thing with Elks. Having a plus in membership every year is a goal for every lodge in the state and they already accomplished that for this year. They are fairly active in the community. They have veterans’ events here which is another big thing with the Elks. We are very veterans oriented and as we said Homecoming this weekend – Homecoming is our special needs camp and that is at Gonzales and that is our other big thing that we do with Texas Elks is sponsor that special needs camp and it take about a million dollars a year to run that camp and this lodge along with 56 others make around $500,000 through a Sweetheart program that helps fund that camp every year,” said Chris.
Jim says those wishing to learn more or who have benefited from the Texas Elks Camp facility located next to Palmetto State Park are invited to take part in the weekend filled schedule.
“It’s a great chance to see and get to meet a lot of Elks from around the state…”
“This year’s event is being hosted by folks from the panhandle, so they’ve spent 10-12 hours driving down just to come to the event and they are going to put on a pretty good show. There will be some games out there. A chuckwagon will be out there. Friday night is a chuckwagon dinner but come out and see what the Elks do. See at least what we do when we are at Homecoming anyway and get to talk to some folks and get different versions of what we do. We all have our own stories. We all have the things that excited us and that brought us into it and most of us like to share that, “ said Jim.
Jim says the Elks Camp for years has provided children with special needs and children in foster care with unforgettable summer memories at no cost to families – many of which are from Guadalupe County.
“It’s just a chance to see it, take tours of the facility itself, see what the camp is like. The camp was built in 1946 and it was actually a polio hospital at one time, and it’s been transformed into what we use now for our summer camps and for our other events,” said Jim.
In June, each lodge contributes to this state project in which for six weeks, 40 special needs kids spend their time fishing, boating, hiking, bowling and enjoying other fun activities.
Jim says lodges hail from the northern portion of the panhandle all the way to the southern tip of Harlingen. He says along the way, you get to witness the real contributions of these lodges like the one here in Seguin.
“Lodges across the state do a lot of things. Seguin has been active with I know they have the veterans programs that they are working here. They are working the scholarship programs. They are working within our community trying to find those things that are going to help grow the community, grow awareness of Elkton in general,” said Jim.
Homecoming events run Friday and Saturday. Friday night’s featured events include a golf tournament at 7 a.m. at Independence Golf Course and a Chuck Wagon Dinner at 6 p.m. Cost is $15 per plate.
Saturday events include but are not limited to craft sales, a cake and spirit walk, guided tours, BBQ cook-off, a trap shoot, cooking challenge and dance featuring music by CK Twister DJ.
Registration for the events can be found at texaselkscamp.com.
The Texas Elks Children’s Services is located at 1963 FM 1586, Gonzales.