Elks National Foundation Blog

by Jim O'Kelley Director, Elks National Foundation (This is the fifth in a series of posts about the need for Lodges to stay relevant during this time of isolation.  To find all posts in the series, click here:  #StaySafeBeRelevant .) Many of us have been mostly staying at home for two months now, which begs the question, “Are we having fun yet?” In answering that question, I can’t speak for everyone, but after crashing one of their virtual happy hours, I can speak confidently for the folks at Ferndale, Michigan, Lodge No. 1588. That crew is having a ball. Ferndale is a suburb of about 20,000 people, just across the Eight Mile from Detroit. A bedroom community in the 1920s and ’30s, Ferndale boomed along with the auto industry in the ’40s, ’50s and ’60s. In fact, today, it still derives its nickname from a catchy 1960s advertising campaign that caught: Fashionable Ferndale. Sarah Ignash leads the T-Rex Walking Club to fame, if not fortune. As the econom...