Event Chair Sandie McClure Administers the “Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader?” test with the Trabuco Hills High school Cross Country Team walking for their coach with Cancer, Mama Clemons.
At the Saddleback Valley Football Stadium, Mission Viejo / Saddleback Valley Elks Lodge #2444 (“Elks”) raised over $5,000 for the American Cancer Society during the 16th Annual Mission Viejo Relay for Life event.
From a distance, the numerous pop-up tent structures created a bazaar like quality. The live band music, which was outstanding, enhanced the festivities. From their booths, various youth, business, church and other groups, dispensed cancer related materials. Some sold baked goods and other consumer items to raise money for the American Cancer Society. Some groups also had other tents behind their booths so their members could spend the night of June 5th at the stadium.
The Elks booth was a three pop-up tent structure organized by Sandi McClure, Barb Martino and Nora West. At the Elks booth, event participant’s knowledge of sun screen and skin cancer was tested. The “Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader”? test provided nominal prizes for correct answers to questions created by fifth graders from Mickie Petko’s Foothill Ranch fifth grade class. The Elks also handed out brochures on drug awareness, the American flag and youth scholarships.
Over fifty Elk members, their spouses and friends participated in the walk around the stadium track. After each lap, walk participants stopped to select a colored bead to thread on a plastic lace to create a necklace or bracelet as a remembrance of the walk. Many cancer survivors wearing purple T-shirts could be seen walking around the stadium track. The Elks participants also purchased numerous luminaria inscribing messages on the white bags lit by candles in remembrance of loved ones lost to cancer or to those that won their battle with cancer. At night, the luminaria provided a lighted path for the participants that walked around the stadium track throughout the night of June 5th.
Elks Lodge Exalted Ruler Pat Martino said, “The Elks Lodge is proud to sponsor an event that raises monies to fight such a dreaded disease. For our parents and grandparents, a diagnosis of cancer was practically a death sentence. It is gratifying to know that cancer survival rates have dramatically improved from 25% in the 1940’s to 66% in the 2003-2007 five-year period.”
The Mission Viejo / Saddleback Elks Lodge #2444 is one of ten lodges in the Orange Coast District of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks (BPOE) whose headquarters is in Chicago, Illinois. The BPOE is a charitable organization with a 142 year history of giving, “Elks Care, Elks Share.”
