Santa Clarita Elks Lodge No. 2379 donated $2,000 worth of non-perishable food and other goods to the Bella Vida SCV Senior Center on Thursday to help provide for local community members in need.
Creating five teams, each of which was in charge of $400 worth of spending, the Elks Lodge purchased a variety of goods, from canned foods to paper towels, to adult pull-ups and more.
“We really know what the Senior Center does for our seniors in the community,” said Tom Schmidt, the grants committee chairman for the Elks Lodge. “And, you know, having turned a senior myself a month before last, it was like, ‘OK, I can help these people because maybe and maybe not, before too long, I might be having them help me, too.’”
“What I saw at the beginning of (the pandemic) was all these places, like the Child & Family Center or the SCV senior center, all of these places, losing their big fundraisers,” said Donna Schmidt, Tom’s wife. “So, I looked around and went, ‘All right, where’s the need?’”
In total, the Elks Lodge purchased nearly 1,000 pounds of goods that would go to hundreds of seniors throughout the SCV. On Thursday, a convoy of cars and trucks dropped off the goods at Bella Vida.
The money that was used to purchase the donation, according to the Schmidts, was provided by the national branch of the Elks Lodge with the expressed purpose of benefiting the chapter’s local community.
This is the fourth of five grants the local Elks Lodge has used, or plans to use, this year, with previous donations having been to the Child & Family Center and local veterans. The final grant for the year, Donna said, would be used to provide backpacks full of school supplies to families in need.
For more information on the upcoming charitable events the Santa Clarita Elks Lodge is planning to hold and how one might be able to get involved, contact them at [email protected] or 661-251-1500.
