The California Hawaii Elks Association hosted the Midterm Convention in Riverside, November 4th thru the seventh. We were able to hear from several Elks working at both the state and national level on Government Relations. They work to keep us a national charity. Big government always wants that money.

Veterans Services, Scouting, Youth Activities, Americanism, Scholarship, Drug Awareness, and Hoop-Shoot to name a few. As I sat
there listening to all this, I thought, if government did a decent job with any one of these items, what a better world it would be! Wills and Trust and so much more. Think about that, the next time you are setting up tables for a dinner or the Quilters. That simple act means so much, to so many.

The high point for me was, the opening speaker Saturday. Megan Macleod is the coordinator for the Elks Therapists. The powerful occurrences we heard about, from the mothers of the children, our therapists help each day. You could of heard a pin drop, in that enormous room. Many of the six-foot, two hundred pounder Elks were crying away. An ER from the Bay Area challenged all the in the room, and an addition $2100.00 was raised for Purple Pig. The afternoon section drove home the fact that, it is you, the local lodge member, accomplishing the hard works, which support and drive the many good works Elks do.

The Saturday conclusion was The Elks National Foundation Dinner. Our State President, Jay Larkins, introduced the keynote speaker, Past Grand Exalter Ruler Louis J. Grillo. PGER Grillo did an exceptional job, of illuminating the roughly seven hundred Elks, on the mission ENF does every day, throughout the United States of American. Anyone who heard PGER Grillo speaking, not an Elk, would have joined at once. We do belong to an outstanding Order. Keep it up Thousand Oaks.

See you at the BBQ Saturday! Thank you, and if I can be of help, please call me at home, or email me.

Richard Platt,
Exalted Ruler