Sponsor Spotlight: Huntington Beach Elks Lodge

Founded in 1868, The Elks Club is a major American fraternal, charitable, and service order with more than a million members, both men and women, throughout the United States. Life Rolls On Foundation has been the beneficiary of the Huntington Beach Elks Club’s charitable efforts receiving much-needed equipment to enhance LRO’s signature program, They Will Surf Again.

In addition to underwriting and donating TWSA equipment, members of the HB Elks regularly volunteer for TWSA events throughout Southern California and have generously supported LRO’s CURE SCI-Huntington Beach High School chapter by donating meeting space, contributing supplies and publicizing the teens’ efforts among the Huntington Beach community. “The HB Elks have been amazing,” said CURE SCI-HBHS president Devyn Bisson. “They have really helped us develop our CURE SCI chapter into a professional organization and are really supportive our mission.”

Continue reading about the HB Elks to learn how they became involved with LRO and why they support They Will Surf Again, as reported by an esteemed member of the Elks community, Garrett Hamblin.

"As Elks, we believe that charity is the greatest of all virtues and that by sharing and giving, we have the power to replace sorrow and despair with hope and confidence. With this is mind it was only natural that we were able to connect with a giving organization such as Life Rolls On.

Members of the Huntington Beach Elks lodge have been nicknamed “the Sons of the Beaches.” We adopted that name when we formed our Elks Surf Club three years ago. It was December 10, 2006 when the SOB surf club participated in our first They Will Surf Again event at Bolsa Chica State Beach. As volunteers, we connected with a handful of injured surfers together for a day of excitement, pure joy and best of all, surf. That was the day that our surf club found its mission.

We noticed that they were in desperate need of beach wheelchairs. So we took this need back to the Lodge and through the support of our members, thus began our first Chili Cookoff and Classic Car Show to benefit Life Rolls On. Our goal was simple -- to raise some money towards one beach chair. Because the event was such an overwhelming success, we were able to present LRO with two beach wheelchairs. We followed that up with a second Chili Cookoff and renamed the event Wheels4Waves.

We had LRO Ambassadors as well as members of CURE-SCI Huntington Beach High School serving as volunteers, chili judges as well as cookoff competitors. This time with the proceeds, we were able to supply Life Rolls On with mobility mats, rash guards and an EZ Up.

Our 3rd Annual Wheels4Waves event will be on Saturday, August 22nd [2009]. We are hoping this upcoming event will even be bigger and better than the two before.

Our surf club and the rest of our members of the HB Elks are extremely proud to be a part of Life Rolls On and the They Will Surf Again program. The adaptive surfers are awe-inspiring and the volunteers are just great to work with. We are looking forward to this upcoming year and to be able to lend our support to Life Rolls On where ever we can."

To learn more about the HB Elks, visit www.hbelks.com.

Addition Source: www.wikipedia.com

Photos Courtesy of The Hamblin Family and Dave King