Columbus/Grove City Elks Lodge Provides Grant Funds to Aid Vaccine Distribution and to the Bed Brigade

The Columbus/Grove City Elks recently donated funds to two local agencies in order to meet community needs. The Lodge donated $2,000 to the Franklin County Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency for use in recruiting and training volunteers for their Medical Reserve Corp, made of medical students, to help distribute and administer the COVID-19 vaccines, and for any other COVID-related expenses. As has been well publicized by this point, a major stumbling block to getting the pandemic under control has been building the infrastructure to actually get the shots in the arms of everyone who needs them. By using the Lodge’s donation to recruit members into its Medical Reserve Corp, Franklin County Emergency Management will help meet this need.

The Lodge also donated $1,500 to the local Bed Brigade team to further their work in the community. The Bed Brigade provides beds to people who cannot otherwise afford them. The Brigade builds bed frames and also provides mattresses, pillows, and bedding, which they then transport to the homes of people in need. In normal times, the team members then set up the bed in the home. During the pandemic, the beds are delivered the families, along with instructions on how to set them up. According to the Bed Brigade’s Dan Hoover, the Elks donation paid “for the lumber to build about 40 beds. That’s 40 people up off the floor, 40 children perhaps out of bed with a step mother/father or step sister/brother. 40 people with their own personal, safe place to sleep each night.”

The money for the donations came from a Beacon Grant from the Elks National Foundation (ENF). In 2020, the Lodge received $9,500 in grants from ENF, which it then donated to organizations to meet various community needs during the pandemic