WALLACE — The beautiful Elks Lodge, a frequent home for community events and charitable efforts is once again giving back.

The Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks (BPOE) is a fraternal organization with nearly a million members, a network of more than 200 lodges and communities all over the country, and is a generous charitable foundation. The Wallace Elks Lodge has been an active part of the Wallace community since 1896, with the current building built-in 1924.

“The Elks don’t often do a lot of outreach, or let people know what they put into the community,” said Elks member, Marcy Hayman, “We received a lot of money from grants, and we would like to let the community know that’s going on.”

The three-story building includes a weight and sauna room, lounge, club, kitchen, and lodge room that is utilized for parties, meetings, events, and more throughout the year by the community.

The three-story building includes an elevator that is looking to be updated. In the past 60 days, $55,000 have been donated toward the elevator fund by Sally and Louis Gehring, and Mervin L. Beck, which puts them more than halfway toward a new elevator.

Between the Idaho State Elks, Elks National Foundation (ENF) and the Frank A. Morbeck Community Foundation, the Elks have written six different grants, and have been awarded a total of $22,500.

From the Elks National Foundation, $4,000 of that will go to the Children’s Rec Center in Wallace to which Hayman explained, “That’s going to pay for an entire year’s worth of expenses, which is absolutely amazing to us.”

$1,000 was raised in grant money to Feed the vets of the community. “Every time we have a dinner, vets eat for free,” Hayman said. “We would love for that to be out to the vets. Come, come have dinner. This is any steak night dinner, or Friday night dinner, that we put on.”

Feed the Need was started last winter, and $2,000 was awarded to continue the program.

ENF also awarded $7,500 to be put toward an upgrade of the sound system for the lodge, as well as colored lighting, new fans and scaffolding, which will update the lodge for events and parties.

“Sera White with Gravis Tech wrote this grant, and they have been instrumental in obtaining this grant for us.”

The Morbeck Community Foundation was established in 1999, at the behest of former Wallace Mayor Frank Morbeck. The foundation awards grants to support community and youth projects in Wallace.

The Morbeck Foundation awarded a grant of $5,500 for a new stove, and fixed refrigeration for the kitchen. The foundation also awarded $2,000 to be allocated the new chairs, and a coffee pot.

“That’s huge, our kitchen gets used so much and we are always putting on dinners and events, this is basically an overhaul of the kitchen equipment,” Hayman said.

Steak dinners are every month on the first Wednesday of each month. Feed the Need and Friday night dinners have been postponed until August to allow volunteers a break.

For more information on the Wallace Elks, please visit https://wallace.idahoelks.org/.