Community News

The Orange Elks supporting our Youth and our Community Partners!

 

by: Bill Neessen
Published: November 24, 2025

 

ORANGE...The lodge helped the Down Syndrome Association of OC at the DSAofOC Buddy Walk. Lodge members set up a fishing area at the Buddy Walk.

L-R: Leslie Vales, Rosie Cash, Kevin Wagner, and Jorge “JC” Cortez

 

The 3rd Grade Dictionary Program is a traditional program. The Orange Elks visited twenty-seven schools and gave a dictionary to every 3rd grade student in the Orange Unified School District. In eighteen years, they have delivered over forty thousand dictionaries.

 

Our 2025 Eli Home Thanksgiving was Amazing! The lodge members hosted the Eli Home Shelter for Abused Children to a Thanksgiving Dinner with all the fixings.

The Eli Home is a shelter for Abused Children. The Orange Elks provided an afternoon where these children and their mothers could enjoy the dream of feeling loved, getting a holiday meal and being entertained. Our kitchen crew cooked for over 50 children and their mothers. They enjoyed some talented magicians, crafts, face painting, balloon art and a chance to interact and play with some princesses from the Princess Workshop and Star Wars characters from the 501 Legion. A photo booth for pictures was available.

The children left our lodge with a goodie bag filled with some toys, coloring books and crayons, granola bar, goldfish crackers and a handmade pillowcase. They were given a $20 Walmart gift card and a gift certificate donated by our local Habit Burger.

 

The success of this event is driven by the Eli Home motto:
Imagine if LOVE could change the world!  

 

Orange Elks not only worked with the Eli Home Shelter to help break the cycle of child abuse and make a difference in the lives of the children but truly showed through this event that Elks Care Elks Share and Love can change the world!

Photos:OrangeElks