After years of helping community, Elks Club needs community’s help
For the past 70 years the Elks club in Salisbury has done so much for the community, but now it appears they need the community to do something for them.
Their lodge, an iconic building that sits not too far from downtown Salisbury is in need of renovation according to exalting ruler, or president of the club, Jan Phipps.
Phipps showed our crew the water damage the lodge has experienced in its upstairs meeting room, the weathered windows and the problems with the heating and air conditioning.
Phipps said the lodge is often used by outside groups, such as the boy scouts, to host their functions. However the lodge is outdated with technology and style that was last relevant in the 1908's.
According to member Duke Marshall, the lodge needs to be renovated so they can continue to host functions for local groups.
"Today's meetings need wifi, they need the drop down screens, they need things (like) that just to be in today's society, just like ourselves," Marshall said.
In total the Elks are looking to fundraise $1.5 million for the three-phase renovation that will encompass two floors and the outside of the building.
Marshall said they would use their own funds, but over the past years the Elks have done more "giving" than "saving."
"The lodge, one of the things they're most guilty of is giving it all the way, so what they didn't do was keep and hold back money to help renovate, so basically they would donate, give their time efforts, money it went right back into the community," Marshall said.
Keeping the lodge around is important not just for the Elks though, but for the community. Phipps said she can recall fond memories at the lodge from her childhood and she wants future generations to be able to experience the same things.
"As a little girl myself and my family would come over, sled down the hills when it snowed, we would swim at the pool, we were on the swim team," Phipps said. "I think it's extremely important to everyone in the community. There's not been a person that I haven't run into that hasn't shared a memory with me about it that has enjoyed it as children and now growing up as adults bringing their children here."
A million of the funds raised would go straight to the renovations, the other half million would go into a fund that would be used to continuously keep the lodge in good condition.
To donate, you can make your checks payable to the Community Foundation of the Eastern Shore and put "the friends of the Salisbury Elks fund" in the memo line.
