The Homer Elks Lodge #2127 continues their charitable work this year with multiple donations to local organizations throughout the southern Kenai Peninsula. Since their inception in 1959, they’ve given $2.2 million back to the community. In late September, the lodge completed all of their Elks National Foundation Community Investments Program Grants, resulting in a total disbursement of $11,500 to community groups.

Upon completing disbursement from their Alaska State Elks Association HELP grant in the near future, Exalted Ruler Jill Hockema said in a Sept. 26 interview, the lodge will have donated $22,000 this year.

Homer News reported in July the Homer Elks’ completion of a Spotlight Grant through the Elks National Foundation Community Investments Program, which provided $2,000 of fruit over an eight-week period to Glacierview Baptist Church’s third annual Kids Free Summer Lunch Program, which serves children who are homeless, attending summer school, participating in sports, and those receiving mental health care.

Also in July, the Homer Elks completed their Freedom Grant — directed toward meeting the needs of today’s veterans and military members — and Beacon Grant. For the Freedom Grant, they purchased 10 grocery gift cards amounting to $100 each and delivered them to the VA clinic in Homer for distribution to local veterans in need. The Beacon Grant, which totalled $4,000 and is directed for use in the lodge’s leadership of an active charitable project, was split evenly in the purchase of food delivered to the Rivers of Life Assembly of God Church Food Pantry and ARCHES Alaska Food Pantry located in Ninilchik.

The lodge also received a $4,500 Gratitude Grant to support local charitable activities. In June, they donated $1,000 of the grant funds to the Paul Banks Elementary School PTA. The PTA ordered new equipment, which arrived in August, for the school’s physical education program.

The remaining $3,500 was donated in September to West Homer Elementary School to fund fourth-graders’ annual Outdoor Education Program field trip to Peterson Bay, scheduled for May 2026. This donation, Hockema said, will enable students whose families are facing financial difficulties to participate.

All of the above grants were received by the Homer Elks Lodge from the Elks National Foundation before being redistributed to the community.

The Homer Elks have several upcoming community events, beginning with their annual Elks Hoop Shoot free throw contest on Saturday, Oct. 11 from 9:30 a.m. to noon at the Homer High School gymnasium. This event is free for area youth ages 8-13. Part of a nationwide event, winners will go on to participate in the national competition in Chicago next April. Grace Wilhelm, 13, from Palmer won the national Elks Hoop Shoot this year — the first Alaska participant to do so since Trajan Langdon in 1990.

The Homer Elks will also conduct outreach for veterans through the Disabled American Veterans organization on Oct. 10-11 from 9-5 p.m. at the lodge.

Starting Oct. 24 and going through Oct. 31, lodge members will host a table at Ulmer’s for Red Ribbon Week, a drug awareness program for youth.

On Veterans Day this year, Nov. 11, following a parade in Homer the lodge will host a lunch service for veterans at noon. After, Hockema said, the Kachemak Bay Quilters Association and the Homer Emblem Club #350 will present “quilts of valor” to attending veterans.

Hockema also said that the Homer Elks have been distributing dictionaries to third grade students in the southern Kenai Peninsula Borough School District. As of Sept. 26, they’d given out 83 dictionaries to students at McNeil Canyon Elementary School and West Homer Elementary School in Homer and Chapman School in Anchor Point.

Hockema said she distributed additional dictionaries to Ninilchik School on Sept. 29, and in October she’s planning to donate more to the schools in Voznesenka and Kachemak Selo. Additionally, she said the lodge will be working with Project GRAD to deliver dictionaries to students in Seldovia, Nanwalek and Port Graham. She’s also planning to contact Bristol Bay schools to have dictionaries shipped there.

According to the Elks website, the Dictionary Project was founded in 1995 by a woman named Mary French, from Charleston, South Carolina. The project is focused on “promoting literacy to children in third grade as they transition from learning how to read to identify and use information.” The national Elks order joined the program in 2004, and now have 600 lodges nationwide actively participating.

Hockema said that the Homer Elks had conducted their dictionary donation program in past years, and she restarted efforts last year, intending to step them up.

“We were doing it for a while, and then it went away. So I started doing it again last year — we only did three or four schools, and this year I’m trying to hit them all,” she said.

Learn more about the Elks National Foundation and Elks-sponsored events by visiting elks.org. Find the Homer Elks Lodge #2127 on Facebook and see more of what they next have in store.

This story has been updated to reflect the correct total of grant funds disbursed to the community by the Homer Elks so far this year. The Spotlight, Freedom, Beacon and Gratitude Grants total $11,500, not $11,000.

Homer Elks Lodge #2127 Exalted Ruler Jill Hockema (right) is photographed with members of the ARCHES Alaska Food Pantry after a food donation, purchased using grant funds received by the Homer Elks Lodge, was delivered to the pantry in July 2025 in Ninilchik, Alaska. Photo provided by Jill Hockema

Homer Elks Lodge #2127 Exalted Ruler Jill Hockema (left) and Paul Banks Elementary School PE teacher Tony Perelli are photographed with sports equipment purchased by the Paul Banks PTA with grant funds donated by the Homer Elks Lodge in June 2025 in Homer, Alaska. Photo provided by Jill Hockema