Moose Jaw is home to one of the oldest Elks Lodges in the country.
The Moose Jaw Elks Lodge No. 7 hosted the second provincial conference in 1931. From June 9-12 the local lodge will host the Elks’ 90th annual provincial conference.
“We always have played a role in the community,” said Harold Claffey, conference co-chair for the provincial conference. “We’re growing and we’re active. Right now we have 56 lodges in Saskatchewan and about 1,200 members.”
Claffey said that they expect to draw about 70 delegates and their families to the city for the convention which will be held at the Comfort Inn and at the Royal Canadian Legion hall.
The Moose Jaw Elks are active in the local community with events, fundraisers and donations. In 2017, they donated to 30 different groups and organizations.
“We’ve done the concession stand at ParkArt every year for about 12 or 13 years and we’re doing that again this year. We’ve applied for a two-day concession at the Air Show and we do barbecue catering throughout the summer in the city and the surrounding area,” Claffey said.
The Elks have a long history in Moose Jaw and, as the name of their lodge indicates, they were the seventh Elks lodge to be formed.
“The Elks of Canada was founded in 1912 and our local lodge was founded in 1913,” Claffey said. “Lodge No. 1 is in Vancouver and what happened was that they got on a train and they would get off once in a while and start a new lodge. So Moose Jaw is No. 7 and Regina is No. 9 – I’m not sure how that worked out – but they went across the country.”
Moose Jaw hosted the third national Grand Lodge Convention in 1914 and hosted it again in 1940.
In 1952 they started Elks Minor Football and in 1988 the entered into an agreement with the City to build Elks Athletic Field on Caribou Street West which opened in 1990.
Significantly, they also operate the Saskatchewan Elks Seniors Homes in eight different communities – Moose Jaw, Esterhazy, Rosetown, Davidson, Hanley, Moosomin, Prince Albert and Nipawin. The goal of the Saskatchewan Elks Senior Homes is to provide appropriate living quarters and accommodations for Saskatchewan seniors.
“It’s exclusive to Saskatchewan,” Claffey said. “Many years ago, back in the fifties, a man in Prince Albert who was a member of the Elks saw a need for seniors housing in that community and he built and started some senior homes there.”
The first 20 units were opened in Prince Albert in the fall of 1959 and Moose Jaw quickly followed suit and opened their own units locally in 1961.
“We have senior homes in Moose Jaw on Home Street East, which is a good place for them,” Claffey said. “There’s a waiting list for all of our homes in Saskatchewan, including here in Moose Jaw.”
The Elks currently operates 135 seniors units across the province.
Moose Jaw last hosted the provincial meeting in 2010, but had an honoured guest when they celebrated their anniversary last year.
“Our Grand Exalted Ruler, our national president, is Ron Potter from Moosomin. He visited us last spring when we put on an anniversary celebration for our 105th anniversary and we put on a dinner at the Legion and had some fun,” Claffey said.
The Saskatchewan Charity Appeal Raffle is one of the main fundraisers that the Saskatchewan Elks Foundation holds each year. The proceeds from the raffle go to support the Elks and Royal Purple Fund for Children and other community projects. The raffle prize is drawn at the provincial convention.
Nationally the Elks are still doing good works in their communities. They boast 250 lodges coast to coast and 11,000 members. The Elks & Royal Purple Fund for Children is their national charity that provides financial assistance for the medical needs of children with hearing and speech disorders.
