On Sunday, Sept. 29, the Tennessee Elks Disaster Relief plan was enacted by Matt Kidd to assist those suffering from floods in Waverley, TN and Humphrey County. This means that the Tennessee Elks Association, which is broken into East, Middle (our district), and West districts, all coordinated with Humphrey County and Waverly, TN to gather donations from across Tennessee. The Middle District went down to Waverly with supplies on the morning of Wednesday, August 25th with supplies. The East District went down on Friday, August 27 with supplies.
According to Buzz Bussler, the exalted ruler of the Fayetteville Elks Lodge, “The turn out was overwhelming. I personally felt overwhelmed by the amount of donations we received and the charity of our community. I’m not from here originally. I was in the Navy and have been stationed all across the United States. To come here to this community 15 years ago, and to now be a part of this Elks Lodge I am very proud to be a part of this community. I am so honored to be the exalted ruler of this lodge and see the charity work that this lodge does. It was just amazing. We even had the mayor up there with us on Tuesday night to see the work our community has done. The community as a whole is responsible for this, we just provided a means to get the donations there. That’s what elks do. Elks care, elks share!”
The Fayetteville Elks Lodge - Post 1792, located at 1750 Wilson Parkway, was the collection point of supplies for the Middle District. All of the other lodges in the souther middle district brought their supplies to the Fayetteville Elks Lodge and they loaded up four pickup trucks with just water. They also completely filled up the drug awareness trailer and a 16 foot box trailer full of supplies. They also picked up several trailers from Lawrenceburg, Columbia, and Pulaski along the way. From Fayetteville all the way to Waverly, TN there was a caravan of trailers full of donated supplies.
Due to having to set up an 11 a.m. time slot with the National Guard for Wednesday, all donations had to be in by Tuesday night at 6 p.m.. The Fayetteville Elks Lodge asked the community to help spread the word that they were collecting funds and disaster supplies. The Fayetteville Elks Lodge advertised the need for donations both on the radio and on their Facebook page. The Fayetteville Elks Lodge alone collected $20,000 in relief supplies ranging from water, diapers, food, cleaning supplies, pet food, and hygiene supplies. They also collected $5,000 in cash donations from lodge members, small businesses, and individuals in the community.
The Fayetteville Elks Lodge is still taking up monetary donations until Sept. 7. The Elks Lodge in Waverly will then decide what they want to do with the money, if they just need cash or if they need more supplies.
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