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Saturday June 18, 2022 The first ever attempt at this was held this year at West Shore #2257 Lodge. Judges were from South East District. PSP Dave DeStefano, Ritualistic State Chairman Rich Dunay amongst others were present for this event. Pat Maccolini started registration @ 9:30 with competition starting at 10. The order was not fixed as Rich wanted this competition to be easy for individuals to fit into their schedule where the could come, compete, and leave should they desire. There were 15 total competitors from 4 lodges. 2 other lodge representatives came to witness and several more inquired.

By Michael C. Spearing mspearin@centredaily.com STATE COLLEGE, PA: Some people call John and Alan Kunig of Pennsylvania Furnace "miracle babies." The Pennsylvania Elks Home Service Program see them as "Children of the Year." The Elks recognized the three-year-old twins a recent press conference in District Justice Brad Lunsford's courtroom on West College Avenue. While Jack Orlandi, Exalted Ruler of State College Lodge 1600 spoke, John and Alan and their brother and sister, Josh and Sierra, availed themselves of all useable furniture within striking distance to make toy car highways, mountains to climb and sliding boards to slide on. Born on June 15, 1998, Alan and John are twin sons of Andrea Murray and Glenn Kunig of Pennsylvania Furnace. They were born about 14 weeks premature due to a placental condition called twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome. Orlandi said the Pennsylvania Elks Home Service visiting nurse for Centre County, Karen Kay McKalips, was the driving force behind the children's selection out of the hundreds of deserving youngsters. "Karen lobbied for them at the state level," Orlandi said. "She told them she thought it was about time State College recognized that these disabilities exist, and when they asked her, 'Do you have anyone in mind?' she said, 'I sure do.' That's how it happened." According to the Twin-to-Twin Transfusion Syndrome Foundation, located in Bay Village, Ohio, TTTS affects identical twins during pregnancy when blood passes disproportionately from one baby to the other through connecting blood vessels within their shared placenta. As a result, one baby gets too much blood, overloading the cardiovascular system, and may die from heart failure. The other baby gets too little blood and may die from anemia. The babies themselves are normal. The abnormalities are in the placenta, but numerous problems result from the condition. "Alan was 11 inches long and weighed 1 pound 21/2 ounces when he was born," Andrea Murray said. "John was 14 inches long and weighed 2 pounds 3 ounces." She said John was born with cardiac problems and Alan with a host of conditions. Both boys are doing well now, Murray said, and she is especially pleased that the prognosis for Alan and John remains very good, even though the cost was staggering. "John was in the hospital for 95 days and his care cost $600,000, and Alan was in for 195 days and cost about $1.3 million," she said. "Getting all those bills was so stressful. We got stacks and stacks of them." She said a pleasant surprise came from the doctors and hospitals. "One day out of the blue, they (the billing office) called us and said, 'We know how hard you've tried,' and then they wrote it off." Orlandi said Wednesday's event was in recognition of the twins and their indomitable spirit. He said he thought McKalips had it right when she wrote, "Even though they were so tiny you could hold them in your hand, they had a huge will to live. It wasn't the size of the children, but the determination in their hearts that made these little boys survive." Reprinted with permission from the Centre Daily Times. (The Centre Daily Times is online at www.centredaily.com.)

Images from the 2016 Mid-Atlantic Elks Regional Shoot

The 2023 Legacy Awards Contest Opened September 1. Full Details and Application found here https://www.elks.org/scholars/scholarships/legacy.cfm Legacy Awards are $4,000 scholarships available to children and grandchildren of Elks members. Eligibility requirements are outlined below. The 2023 contest and application closes on February 6, 2023 at 11:59 p.m. Pacific Time. Who is Eligible? For the 2023 contest, any child or grandchild (or step-child, step-grandchild, or legal ward) of a living Elk who joined the order on or before April 1, 2020, or a charter member of a Lodge that was instituted on or after April 1, 2020, is eligible to apply. The Elk must also be a paid-up member through March 31, 2023. Great-grandchildren are not eligible. The applicant must be a high school senior. The applicant must apply online only. The 2023 Legacy Awards application deadline is February 6, 2023, 11:59 pm Pacific Time. If the applicant's parent and grandparent are both Elk members, the applicant must apply through the parent's Elks Lodge. We have waived the standardized test requirement for the 2023 Legacy contest. You do not need to submit ACT and/or SAT scores. Students may apply for more than one ENF scholarship; however, they may win only one. In cases where the student wins more than one, we will award the scholarship with the greater value. Students can accept local and state scholarships, which are separate from the awards at the national level. Legacy Awards may only be applied to accredited US American schools, colleges or universities. (Note: Applicants from Guam, Panama, Puerto Rico and the Philippines may apply Legacy Awards toward schools, colleges or universities in their respective homes.) If you are selected as a 2023 Legacy Awards recipient, you will be required to perform three instances of service with an Elks Lodge during the four years you are receiving the scholarship. Click here for more information about serving with the Elks.

The 2023 application opened on August 1. Applicants will be judged on scholarship, leadership, and financial need. Eligibility: Current high school seniors, or the equivalent, who are citizens of the United States are eligible to apply. Applicants do not need to be related to a member of the Elks. High school graduates are not eligible to apply. Applicants must be citizens of the United States on the date their applications are submitted; permanent legal resident status does not qualify. The 2023 application deadline is November 14, 2022 at 11:59 p.m., Pacific Time. Full Details and Application found here https://www.elks.org/scholars/scholarships/mvs.cfm

Greetings PA Elks, Another great year for National Foundation in PA. Thank you for all you do to support Elks and its principles. Total donations received in 2021-22 year was $220.884.32. That was 123.791% to the GERs goal of $4.80 per capita. Sixty Lodges individually met or exceeded that $4.80 per member goal. 99% of PA Lodges gave to ENF. Fifty-five Lodges received 141 grants from the Foundation which was $386K of help for our communities. ENF has a contest called the Chairperson’s Challenge. It is based on a point system throughout the year. This contest recognizes Lodges and their chair for having a board-based fundraising program in support of the Foundation. Accolades to John DeStefano and Bridgeport Lodge #714 for an amazing score of 948 points out of a possible 1000. Did you know that every lodge needs to have an Elks National Foundation Chair? Did you know that all chairs; local, district, and state must register EVERY year? Do you know we have many lodges with no register person? These VIPs (very important people) are the key in how we communicate and succeed. Please correct this issue. Our PA Elks Fidelity Club is growing. Don’t miss being a part of it. What you don’t know about Fidelity Club? It is members that enroll in a plan to automatically have regularly scheduled donations made to ENF through their bank account or credit card. Just a minimum of $5 monthly. During the Fall 2021 Convention we offered a “thank you” gift, the PA Elks Tumbler. We have continued this program and anyone that is a Fidelity member or joins can receive this tumbler. Please reach out to me at convention 67 Erie 644 Tarentum 69 New Castle 695 Mahanoy City 103 Sharon 714 Bridgeport 109 Wilkes-Barre/Scranton 754 Danville 110 Franklin 776 Washington 115 Reading 777 Scottdale 134 Lancaster 814 Pottstown 145 Greenville 831 Carnegie 170 Butler 846 Canonsburg 200 Hazleton 872 Ridgway 212 Tyrone 883 Braddock 213 York 931 Indiana 219 Meadville 970 Bristol 264 Titusville 1074 Columbia/Middletown 283 Rochester 1090 Coraopolis 319 East Stroudsburg 1094 Bellefonte 339 Allegheny 1106 Bangor 344 Oil City 1138 Berwick 348 Beaver Falls 1148 Sayre 370 Uniontown 1221 Aliquippa 377 Leechburg 1533 Frackville 384 Ashland 1592 Red Lion 386 Apollo 1668 Oakmont 406 Blairsville 1933 Ephrata 436 Bloomsburg 1979 North Penn 503 Connellsville 2023 Fairless Hills 519 Reynoldsville 2213 Pittsburgh (South Hills) 540 Clearfield 2249 Cranberry 577 Wilkins 2257 West Shore 631 Lebanon 2313 Norwin

Congratulations to our 2021-22 Poster Contest Winners!