BELLE FOURCHE—Every Thursday evening the Belle Fourche Moose Lodge offers hamburgers with French fries and dessert for a great price. Thursday, April 24, was extra special as they had a noteworthy guest, Robert Funkey, Chairman of the Moose International Board of Directors, join them.
During his year as Chairman of the Board, Funkey has made it a priority to get out and visit as many of the local Moose chapters as possible. He shared, “It’s my job this year to go visit the lodges, get to know them, answer their questions, make sure that they are brought up to speed, and then if they are having any issues, we suggest things they could try to improve.”
And traveling, he is doing! “There are 1300 Moose Lodges and I have been to somewhere around 300,” Funkey said.
The Chairman has journeyed all over and is having a great time! “This has been one of the greatest experiences of my life,” he said. “I’ve been all over from Alaska to Florida, from California to Maine, Canada, Ontario to Louisiana—so all the way up and down the Mississippi River. There’s only a handful of states that we have not been to this year!”
There is no planned itinerary, it is up to the various chapters where Funkey will visit. “It’s up to the states really, to select the lodges that they would like to have me see. We told them we don’t want to just see your star performers, we want to see lodges that need a hand, maybe ones that are struggling. If there’s something that we can do to offer some encouragement, maybe give them a different point of view, and we will give them some coaching,” he said.
Belle Fourche was one such club. It went through difficult times, but is making a great comeback. Chip Conner, President of the local Moose Lodge explained, “We are getting back on track, the Moose was kind of falling apart here so we are getting back into the fashion of having a monthly meeting for the board members and we’re going to get back into having membership meetings along with that too. We’re in a restructuring phase, we are putting this thing back together like it’s supposed to be as a Moose Club organization.”
The size of the Belle Fourche Moose Lodge has nearly doubled in the past year, it has gone from 60 members to over 100. “We are looking for members and volunteers! Our big thing we do is hamburgers every Thursday night and the first and the third Saturdays we do steak tips up here—phenomenal steak tips,” said Conner. “And of course, we try to help out in the community wherever we can, and we have a facility for other people to use.”
The Moose Lodge is committed to community service. On this special evening, in addition to the notable guest, Chairman Funkey, the Lodge presented local first responders with Tommy Moose stuffed animals to comfort kids they encounter on the job. “We do have a couple guests here tonight to present some Moose characters to the first responders in our community. We are going to give them Tommy Moose to help comfort some of the kids in some of these situations in our town,” said Conner.
“We are all about children so we want to do anything that will benefit the child. You guys have a hard enough job and we want to make your job easier, but we also want that situation to be easier for the kids,” Funkey told the first responders.
Conner also presented a $200 check to Funkey and Moose charities from the Belle Fourche Lodge. Moose Lodge has two special charities they created and help: Moose Heart, which focuses on disadvantaged youth, and Moose Haven, which takes care of seniors.
Funkey ended the presentation by thanking the local Moose Lodge and reminding them how important they are. “These visits are not about me, they are about you. You guys do an amazing job. I want to encourage you to keep it up,” he said. “You are growing your membership, keep that up! Be proud and talk to your friends, your neighbors, your business associates, people at church, people in the community that you know and invite them in and tell them what we are all about!”
Membership to the Moose for the first year is $72.00 and $52.00 for each year after. They have recently started a dart league. Conner explained, “The dart league really helped bring people in, and they become members too. It’s kind of neat, as far as gathering a lot of people and it’s not the standard bar scene, (it’s more) family oriented.” If you are interested in joining the Moose community, reach out to Moose Lodge President Conner.
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