Good afternoon Elks members! Below are your reminders for the next week in Gatlinburg Elkdom.
- Singo with Pinky will begin next Monday, October 7, at 6:00 p.m. If you haven’t played, Singo is like bingo, but is played with music, rather than letters and numbers. Pinky Entertainment will be with us for the first and third Monday of each month beginning next Monday and continuing until spring. Games will start at 6:00 and 7:00 and it’s free to play two cards each game (which is really six games total). Also, due to last week’s flooding, for the months of October and November, anyone who brings three or more of the flood relief items listed on www.cockecountystrong.com with them to Singo can play two extra cards AND receive double prizes if they win. Prizes awarded for each game will be drink chips for our lounge, and anyone bringing flood relief items will receive DOUBLE the chips if they win. (If you come with a group, this would mean three items per person for extra cards.) Please make plans to be at the Lodge next Monday to welcome Pinky, enjoy a rousing game (or six) of Singo and contribute to flood recovery.<br><br>
- The flood relief collection effort lead by our members Hannah Gray and Kenzi McCarter and the good folks at Ripley’s continues at 1590 Parkway in Pigeon Forge (formerly the Pigeon Forge Welcome Center). Again, please visit www.cockecountystrong.com for a list of needed items, take a trip to your favorite dollar store, and stop by with your donation. Last week’s flooding is the kind of event that should mobilize all Elks members to do something to help and this is a great opportunity to do just that. Cocke County has established a volunteer line for anyone wanting to volunteer time. They have asked that volunteers call ahead and they will dispatch you to the most needed locations. Please call (423) 540-0171
- Please remember that our Charity Dinner will include a number of auctions which will, in turn, add much-needed dollars to our Charity Account and Par 3 golf tournament account. When the front and center window table has been raffled off on October 28, there will be six more window tables for four left to auction off for the Christmas parade on Dec. 6. All money raised from those auctions will go to the Charity Account and we anticipate that a great deal of that will be used toward the flood recovery effort in Newport and Cocke County over the coming months. The money raised from the auction of the Pac Man multicade machine that is currently in our Lodge will be added to the Par 3 tournament account. The Smoky Mountain Children’s Home is the beneficiary of all proceeds from the golf tournament and they are currently having a $200,000.00 fundraising drive to replace a staff house on their campus that burned recently. As you can see, there are lots of areas of need among the people that our Lodge serves, so please be generous with your bidding. Telephone and proxy bidding are welcome for all auctions if you are unable to attend Charity Dinner in person. PGER Randy Shook will be our guest auctioneer, so it should be a very special evening. Tickets are available now!!
- Don’t forget the Lodge meeting on October 14! Dinner will be our first fall and wintertime chili cookoff and we will have four entries from four very strong competitors. We are going to do our best to serve dinner in a blind taste test format and crown the members’ choice winner during the meeting. Please see our bartenders to sign up to bring sides, condiments, etc. The front and center window table raffle will continue, so please remember that you must be present to win your chance for the final drawing on October 28.
Thank you for being a member of Gatlinburg Elks Lodge #1925!
Greg Forderhase, ER
