Elks National Foundation Blog

By Elks National Foundation Director Jim O'Kelley   This month’s Midday with the ENF , our podcast about the Elks National Foundation, features a must-listen interview with Bryce Caswell and Sean Loosli. To refresh your memory, Bryce and Sean were the top two Most Valuable Student scholarship recipients back in 2003. Here’s a photo of the two of them at the Elks National Convention in St. Louis, along with Meghan and me and also Robin Edison, who used to work with us. Robin Edison, Sean Loosli, Bryce Caswell, Meghan Morgan and Jim O'Kelley at the 2003 Elks National Convention in St. Louis It was taken after they had blown everyone away with their speeches. They left town that day with $60,000 scholarships, both headed to Harvard. Fast forward 12 years. The two of them were with us recently for our second Leadership Weekend. Here’s what we look like now: Sean, Bryce, Meghan and Jim Sean and Bryce served on the judging panels for the interviews and were two

By 2009 Elks Legacy Scholar Lauren Kuhn 2015 Miss America 4th runner-up Lauren Kuhn speaking to Hoop Shoot Finalists at the 2015 National Finals Springfield, Massachusetts—the birthplace of basketball. Believe it or not, my time as Miss Massachusetts had not yet taken me to Springfield for an event surrounding basketball. I jumped at the opportunity to be the keynote speaker and National Anthem performer for the Elks Hoop Shoot National Finals . As a 2009 Elks Legacy scholar, I looked forward to the chance to reunite with my Elks family but what I didn’t know was that I’d be reuniting with some of my biological family too! When I stepped through the elevators in my downtown hotel in Springfield, I was stunned to see my grandmother and grandfather waiting for me. They live more than two hours from Seattle, Washington, so they had a long way to travel! The Elks National Foundation surprised me with their attendance. Why was this so meaningful? Let me share. Lauren takin

By MVS Scholar Sean Pringle I first volunteered at the Oceano/Five Cities Elks Lodge back in my junior year of high school. The Lodge was serving a huge crab feed dinner to benefit one of their many local causes. That night, I met an Elks member—Tony Ulibarri—who held a very large smile in the back kitchen as he served up his homemade pesto sauce. Sean Pringle and Tony Ulibarri The next year (as a high school senior), I volunteered at the same dinner. Earlier that fall, I applied to be an Elks Teenager of the Month and for the ENF Most Valuable Student Scholarship. I remember submitting my Teenager of the Month application to the high school counseling office the same time Tony arrived to pick the applications up. He arrived—again with a large smile—and we talked for a few minutes. A few months later, I found out that I had been selected as a Teenager of the Month and, later, Teenager of the Year. Then, in April, I was notified that I was selected as an MVS Scholarship rec