Members of the Elks Lodge talk over a beer Tuesday afternoon in Centralia.
A local Girl Scout troop meets in the Elks Lodge Tuesday afternoon in Centralia.
An elk head is seen in the bar area of the Elks Lodge Tuesday afternoon in Centralia.
The Elks Lodge is located at 216 South Tower Ave., in Centralia.
The Centralia/Chehalis Elks Lodge has noticed an upswing in visitors since moving to their new home on Tower Avenue.
The former Hub City Club seems to attract a fair number of curious visitors who walk in to ask for more information, or at least how to join them for a drink in the lounge area. They quickly realize, said Exalted Ruler Matt Leech, the group is way more than a watering hole.
“A lot of people think we’re just an organization where you can just come to get a cheap drink, but we’re not. We’re here to serve the community,” Matt Leech said.
February marks the 150th anniversary of the national Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, B.P.O.E., a fraternal organization with about 2,000 lodges throughout the United States. Lewis County has had Elks lodges in one form or another for about 100 years. Originally, there were lodges in both Chehalis and Centralia. The Chehalis lodge was located on Market Street in the former location of Southwest Washington Dance Center, and the Centralia lodge was the building that today houses Berry Fields Café and the Centralia Square Ballroom. The two lodges merged in 1969 to form Centralia/Chehalis Lodge #2435 and built the facility on the hillside above Pacific Cataract and Laser Institute in 1989.
“I remember as a kid growing up in the Elks lodge and we’d get 500 or 600 people for a dinner,” recalled Melissa Leech, Leading Knight and past Exalted Ruler.
The Kresky Avenue Elks clubhouse was vacated briefly in the early 1990s due to slippage of the property, and the club moved back in, but in 2004 decided to list the property for sale due to declining membership. In a Chronicle story from 2004, members of the lodge were quoted as saying the club needed a membership of about 1,200 members to afford to operate the massive facility.
“Unfortunately, membership could not support the upkeep of that building,” Melissa Leech said.
Today, the lodge counts 173 active members. The Kresky building was sold in 2009 and the lodge purchased its new location at 216 S. Tower Ave., the former Hub City Club, in August 2016. Melissa Leech said the new location has allowed the lodge to become part of a lively downtown and they have noticed an upswing in the number of visitors.
“Being in this location, people are like ‘Oh, wow, we still have Elks here?’” Melissa Leech said.
The club has welcomed several new members just recently, including Jeffrey Mijangos, the lodge’s newest member, who joined about a month ago. Mijangos said he moved here three years ago from Utah and was searching for somewhere to get involved and meet new people when he began researching the local Elks lodge.
“I went on the Elks site and looked at it and a lot of it matched my beliefs and what I was looking for,” Mijangos said. “The more I learn about it, the more I like being here.”
The Leeches said they’d like to see more people come learn about Elks because they believe the mission of the order may draw in more new members. B.P.O.E. as an organization supports programs such as the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts. The Centralia/Chehalis lodge currently hosts Girl Scout Troop #42885 and Matt Leech said they are interested in partnering with other such groups who may need a meeting place. Among its other charitable giving, Elks support: a therapy program offering assistance for families of children with disabilities; assistance for U.S. Veterans and their families, including a local upcoming “Stand Down” Veterans assistance fair; and numerous youth programs including the annual hoop shoot, anti-drug programs for kids. The Centralia/Chehalis lodge recently secured a grant to help provide weekend food packages for kids in need and annually hosts a bike safety rodeo, which includes free helmets for all participants. Melissa Leech noted that the Elks organization is the number one scholarship provider outside the federal government.
“We just try to do as much as we can in the community,” Melissa Leech said.
Melissa Leech said she knows one of the barriers some people have to joining the Elks is that the annual membership fee is about $100. She noted, however, that $75 of every membership stays with the local lodge for activities and community outreach. Though the Leeches said they are not rich, their Elks membership is one thing they’d never cut out of their budget.
“It’s the best $100 I spend each year,” Melissa Leech said. “I feel like I support our efforts to give back.”
