Elks National Foundation Blog

by Jim O'Kelley, Director Elks National Foundation Early last summer, my mother-in-law, who watches the kids two days a week, took Patrick, the 3-year-old, to a reading at our local library. While there, Pack (that's what we call him) did something to earn her praise. Admittedly, that's not hard. She is a grandmother. Nevertheless, she was impressed and showed it by saying, "Good job!" That simple, seemingly innocuous phrase earned the instructor's condemnation. The woman swooped in, her finger wagging. "You shouldn't tell a child 'good job,'" she chastised. "It sets them up for a lifetime of seeking affirmation and praise." "Well, then what am I supposed to say?" asked my incredulous mother-in-law. "You should say, 'You worked hard, and you did it,'" the woman answered. We all had a good laugh later that day when my mother-in-law recounted the story. A funny thing happened whe...

by Jim O'Kelley, Director Elks National Foundation And with the final episode of the six-part #TrueGritTuesdays series, we come full circle. Sort of. We started with the younger sibling of a former champion , and we end the same way, although with a different pair of siblings. Alex Robertson is walking in his sister's footsteps, and her shoes are huge. Taylor won it all not once but twice--in 2012 and 2013. In those two years, her final two years of eligibility, she hit 49 out of 50 regulation shots and all 10 of her shoot-off attempts. She was perfect in 2012 and won the Getty Powell Award that year as the best-shooting girl overall. (The other featured sibling champion, Kiera Holcer, edged her out for Getty Powell honors in 2013 with an infamous perfect score of her own.) It takes a family to raise a free throw shooter. Here, Alex gets pointers from his mother, Terri, during a practice session at the Springfield Boys and Girls Club. The entire series ha...

by Jim O'Kelley, Director Elks National Foundation At the outset of this series , I mentioned that we didn't have time to talk with all 72 families during the busy finals weekend. Instead, we chose families that either had an interesting angle, such as the Holcers or the Abramses , or could provide insight on one of the volunteers we were following for the feature film . The latter was the case with McKinley Fitzgerald and her mom, Jennifer. McKinley provided us with a good sound bite about Lynn Rutherford-Snow, Virginia's state director, that we used in the film. McKinley (center) takes aim during the party at the Hall of Fame. But we repurposed their interviews for the #TrueGritTuesdays series, because they both spoke to the role we as Elks play in developing grit (beyond the obvious contribution of the Hoop Shoot as a means). Grit is the courage and resolve to keep going in the face of hardship. You can't force that. You can't force pe...

by Jim O'Kelley, Director Elks National Foundation Count me among those who have never seen Cool Hand Luke . It's true. But as I watched the footage from my interviews with Luke and Marvin Mathis, that's what was rattling around in my head. Why? Well, two reasons. First, let's be honest--hear the name Luke and you're going to think of either Paul Newman or Luke Skywalker. Since I'm not a nerd, I was thinking of Paul Newman. (I wrote that with a straight face, hoping you've forgotten the Lord of the Rings reference I dropped in " The Nitty-Gritty on Father of the Man .") Second, of all the kids I interviewed at the Hoop Shoot Finals last April, Luke was the most comfortable on camera. He was cool. California cool. Luke works out with his dad at the Springfield Boys and Girls Club. During Hoop Shoot season, Luke shot 450 free throws per day. So, once I arranged the footage, I Googled Cool Hand Luke quotes to find something ap...

by Jim O'Kelley, Director Elks National Foundation Of the six films in the #TrueGritTuesdays series, Preparation Meets Opportunity is the most lighthearted. That's by design. In this film, we circle back to a point first made in Ice Cream and the Rocky Road Back , which led off the series. With kids, reinforcing the traits that develop grit--goal-setting, practice, hard work, determination--is much easier when they're working hard at something they want to do. And clearly, NiNi Davenport is a girl who's having fun doing what she's doing. You see it in her answers, and you see it in the b-roll. (By the way, I had no idea what b-roll was 18 months ago, but I'm an old hand at filmmaking now. B-roll is the extra footage used for cuts while the interview subjects are talking.) "Each step along the way, we've come away with a new friend," says NiNi's father, Larry. Here, NiNi (left) and eventual champion Zoe Canfield look pretty re...

by Jim O'Kelley, Director Elks National Foundation “The child is father of the man.” I’m not sure where I first saw that written--whether on a t-shirt or a billboard or tagged on a wall--but it was recent and it caught my eye. “The child is father of the man.” Sounds like a riddle, and I love a good one. "I can't carry it for you, but I can carry you," Christopher Abrams might have said to his father had they been in Lord of the Rings instead of the Hoop Shoot Finals. After running across it a few more times, I finally turned to Google. Turns out the line comes from “The Rainbow,” a poem penned by William Wordsworth in 1802. My heart leaps up when I behold A rainbow in the sky: So was it when my life began; So is it now I am a man; So be it when I shall grow old, Or let me die! The Child is father of the Man; I could wish my days to be Bound each to each by natural piety. It means that our experiences as children--the lessons we lear...

by Jim O'Kelley, Director Elks National Foundation There simply wasn’t enough time to sit down with every family during the Hoop Shoot finals. We had to pick families who either filled a need--they could provide insight on one of the volunteers we were following in the feature film --or had an angle. No stranger to the Hoop Shoot, Korrie Holcer knows that luck happens when preparation meets opportunity. Still, a lucky penny can't hurt any. The Holcers were a natural choice for a sit-down because they had not one but two angles. First, you have Korrie following in big sister Kiera’s footsteps. Korrie was competing in her first finals--in the girls 8- to 9-year-old division--but two years earlier, she was in Springfield as a spectator. And watched Kiera win that same division. Second, you have the opportunity to check in on the ice cream shop. The film starts with a clip of Kiera speaking to the delegates at the 2013 Elks National Convention in Reno. Kiera didn...

by Wendi Dwyer, Communications Manager Elks National Foundation I have always loved the Lincoln Park area of Chicago. As luck would have it, I was able to move here in June. I have four children. My youngest daughter is 15 years old. She was accepted into the Chicago Academy of the Arts in May. Her three older brothers were already out of the house—youngest in college, the middle one in grad school and the oldest is gainfully employed. With only two of us in a big house, it was time to downsize. We jumped at the opportunity to move to the city. It has been a glorious summer exploring our new neighborhood. One evening while walking my dog, Franklin, we passed the impressive Elks Veterans Memorial. The magnificence of the building made me wonder about all of the people who worked together to create such a beautiful tribute to service. I had no idea I would one day be working there. My previous role was as the executive director of Lost Boys Rebuilding South Sudan, a 501(c)(...

by Jim O'Kelley, Director Elks National Foundation That moment when you realize that thing you've been doing is actually a thing. A couple of weeks ago, I was telling Meghan about our latest Hoop Shoot video (watch for it on September 29 as the first installment in our #TrueGritTuesdays series!)--which features two sisters from Missouri and their parents and is about setting goals and working hard to achieve them--and she said: "You guys ought to talk more about grit. It's a hot topic right now. Everyone wants to fund programs that help kids develop grit." One of the things I've learned in four years of marriage is that Meghan has an uncanny knack for being right. Turns out while we were immersed in running the Hoop Shoot, its outcomes had become the Holy Grail of youth programming. The grit movement in education started a few years ago when psychologist Angela Duckworth studied people in various challenging situations, including National Spelling B...