MORGANTOWN —Searching for treasure and sporting tiaras, all before lunchtime. The Morgantown Elks Lodge #411 held a Pirates and Princess pancake breakfast Sunday, fundraising for three local groups.
Vickie Trickett from M. T. Pockets Theatre Company said the Elks Lodge hosted the event. The Elks have been working to get more involved in the community.
“They gave us the opportunity for the three organizations to come together and do a joint fundraiser. This sounded like fun,” she said.
Spark! Imagination and Science Center, M.T. Pockets Theatre Company and Cheat Lake 4-H were the three organizations that benefitted from the fundraiser Saturday. Kids ate breakfast, could get their faces painted and used their imagination as they played throughout the morning.
Trickett said they picked pirates and princesses because it seemed like it would be appealing to all the patrons and supporters of all three organizations. M. T. Pockets will be using the money raised to support their youth theater.
“We all did breakfast and then everybody’s been here helping to set up, and kind of cycling through volunteers so everybody’s been doing their part,” she said
M.T. Pockets Theatre holds shows every month, and also in conjunction with the Elks Lodge held a dirty spelling bee in September. The event was also a fundraiser for the theatre.
Trickett said allowing kids to participate in theater is good because it gives them an opportunity to step outside the norm, and express themselves. It also helps their social skills, she said.
Tammie Christopher-Barnhouse, the club manager for the Elks Lodge said the Elks are involved in a lot of different things in the community.
“We’re just really big on trying to help raise awareness through events at this lodge,” she said.
She said the Elks are the second largest donating faction in scholarships, second only to the U.S. Government.
“We hand out a lot of scholarships to kids and we have a lot of veteran’s events that we handle,” she said.
The Elks also have a special needs camp they sponsor every year. They park cars during football season as a fundraiser, and try to be active in the community. Each organization involved Saturday also has had or will have their own individual fundraiser as well.
“We don’t care if it’s a 5,000 person event or if it’s a 10 person event, it’s an event that’s for a good cause,” she said.
The Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks started with a theatrical group. They wanted to make sure the families of their members were taken care of if there was a hardship in any way. They started doing fundraisers, and that is what the Elks continue to do said Christopher-Barnhouse.
“It’s a good thing. It’s a good place to be, a good place to volunteer your time and get to work with great people,” she said.
