Sean C. Morgan
The Sweet Home Elks Lodge will host a back-to-school fair to distribute its annual donation of back-to-school supplies to area classrooms from 5 to 7 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 18.
The Elks will provide hot dogs and soda at the lodge.
“We’ve done the school supplies for a lot of years,” said Loyal Knight Ron Sharrah. The members used to donate all of the supplies and take them to the schools.
Six or seven years ago, the Grand Lodge started matching donations up to $1,000, he said. Last year, the Grand Lodge made it a $2,000 grant, and this year the Sweet Home Lodge received the same grant plus another $1,000 grant.
“In order to use the $1,000 grant, we have to have involvement with the community,” Sharrah said, so the Elks decided to host a fair, the “Elks Care, Elks Share Back-to-School Fair.”
Students, parents and their teachers are invited from all four Sweet Home elementary schools, Sweet Home Charter School and Central Linn Elementary School.
“The kids will compete for prizes for their classrooms,” Sharrah said. “All of the games are designed so they don’t have to win. They just have to participate to have a prize.”
The purpose is to distribute $3,000 in supplies to classrooms, he said, and at the same time, they have a fun way to get children involved.
The Elks are hoping to have 400 or more attend, he said.
The Elks will still distribute some supplies, such as shoes and socks, based on teacher wish lists to classrooms throughout the district too, he said.
For further information, contact Sharrah at (541) 231-7303 or e-mail [email protected].