Working with and supporting the youth in our community is a key part to what our Lodge strives to do.

• We support our National Grand Lodge Youth programs like the Hoop Shoot and  Soccer Shoot programs
• We support our youth through scholarship programs
• We support Scouting programs within our community.
• Bremerton Elks actively identify other unmet needs for our community, like holding benefits to support high school music programs or working with organizations like the Bremerton Backpack Brigade, whose mission is to be a supplemental food source on weekends for children in need throughout the Bremerton Elementary School Districts.
• In addition to these great programs, we offer other opportunities for children in the community to enjoy themselves, such as our annual Easter Egg Hunt.

To learn more about some of our programs and how we strive to live our mantra of Elks Care—Elks Share.

We are pleased to announce that the Grand Lodge Fraternal Committee has selected the theme “What Does Patriotism Mean To Me?” for the 2024-2025 Grand Lodge Americanism Essay Contest. The contest starts with the Local Lodges, progresses through District and State levels, and ends with naming our National Winners at the Grand Lodge Session in Kansas City, Missouri, in July 2025. This contest gives students in four separate grade levels, grades 5-8, the opportunity to thoughtfully evaluate and express their views on the selected annual theme.

Nationally, first-place, second-place and third-place authors in each division will receive monetary awards of $1,000, $500, and $250 respectfully. Many Lodges, Districts and State Associations also provide various forms of recognition to their respective winners, and the Fraternal Committee appreciates and encourages their extraordinary efforts to support the contest.

Essay Rules: Essays are due by December 15, 2024. The best submissions will be forwarded to the State for further competition.

1. At the time of the contest, eligible participants must be Students enrolled in one of these four divisions: I—5th grade; II—6th grade; III—7th grade; or IV—8th grade.
2. The essay length is not to exceed 300 words.
3. The essay must be typed or legibly printed in ink. Also, the Essay must be submitted as written (or typed) by the entrant.
4. The essay must be submitted for judging to the Elks Lodge nearest to the address of the entrant.
5. Participants must be identified by name, grade, school attending, and sponsoring Elks Lodge on the Essay.

To enter the contest, Download and Submit the application below:

The Hoop Shoot Program is a Youth Basketball Program that starts with a contest sponsored at a local Lodge. Winners move to the regional and then national level contest.

The Elks National Hoop Shoot is a free throw contest for youth ages 8 to 13. Through the Hoop Shoot program, the Elks been developing and reinforcing grit for over 50 years—long before researchers and experts concluded that grit is so important for our children.

Every year in May we celebrate the accomplishments of the youth in our community. Often we recognize amazing young men and women who are making a difference in our community. We have been honored to be able to host ‘crossing over’ ceremonies for Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts. We also use this occasion to recognize the scholastic and athletic achievement of students in the community that are participating in our Elks programs.

Every year the Bremerton Elks Lodge hosts an Easter Egg Hunt. The event is open to the public and over 300 children attend. This year was a little soggier than most, but it was still a great time.

We hide over 6,000 eggs. Hunt areas are broken down by age so children 3- 10 and their parents can enjoy the experience.

Our Ladies of Elks pack and wrap approximately 50 prize baskets (children 4-10 who find the “golden egg” win a basket.

Check out our Facebook site for information on the event. We would love to see you there!

The 2025 Most Valuable Student (MVS) application opens on August 1, 2024.

The Elks has a long history of supporting educational achievements. Please take a look at the detailed information below to learn more about scholarships offered at the National Elks and State Elks association levels. For more information on any of these scholarship opportunities, please contact the Bremerton Elks Lodge Scholarship Coordinator Rita Dearey at deareyw@gmail.com or the Lodge at (360) 479-1181.

(Application opens August – Due in November)

(Application opens September – Due in January)

(Application are accepted May – Nov 1st)

(Click here for Detailed Information)

These applications must be turned in to the Lodge closest to the student. Our Lodge address is Bremerton Elks Lodge #1181 4131 Pine RD NE Bremerton, WA 98310

(Click on Buttons below for a link with application information)

Any adult U.S. citizen who has already graduated from High School, obtained a GED, has been emancipated, and plans to pursue an eligible Vocational/Technical Course, above and supplemental to High School or Preparatory School may apply for the Joseph Darimont Vocational Scholarship Award.

Any graduating Senior High School student and/or General Education student, who is a U.S. citizen is eligible, receiving a diploma or certificate during the current program year and planning to pursue an eligible Vocational/Technical Course, above and supplemental to High School or Preparatory School, may apply for the WSEA Vocational Grant Scholarship Award.

Since January 2020, we have provided almost 5,000 disaster preparedness, emotional and social readiness, and other literacy-enhancing books on diversity and inclusion to Kitsap Community Resources Head Start/ECEAP (KCR) programs!

The Impact Grant is offered by the Elks National Foundation to lodges that meet a rigorous two-stage application competition. The $10,000 grant is highly selective. For example, only 14 Lodge across the country were selected to start new programs in 2020, Bremerton was one of these. In 2023 our Impact grant was again renewed and allows us to provide up to $6,500 in resource support!

We are using the Impact Grant to fund our new Reading for Readiness Program. This program is designed to help children in the Kitsap County Head Start program. 100% of the children in this program come from families at or below the poverty line.

The Reading for Readiness Program addresses two vital community needs: that of disaster readiness and the need to support literacy and overall school readiness.

Our program was designed to have Elks read age-appropriate disaster preparedness and emotional/social readiness books to children across the county in the head start program. The program also provides for each child to get a copy of the readiness books to take home and read with their families.

So far we have covered topics such as fire safety, anger management, earthquake safety, handling worries and making friends, as well as a variety of other topics.

On 7 June, 2016, over 20,000 tribal, state, and federal emergency managers kicked off the Cascadia rising exercise, a 4-day exercise designed to test response and recovery capabilities in the wake of a 9.0 magnitude Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquake and tsunami. During the four-day exercise, the National Guard prepared for 1,274,327 people needing mass feeding and water, 507,701 damaged homes and residential buildings, and 410,127 people needing emergency shelter. It even accounted for 254,357 pets requiring shelter. Should a 9.0 earthquake occur there are estimates that the whole area west of I-5 (i.e. Kitsap County in which Bremerton Lodge #1181 is located) could spend three to six months without electricity, one to three years without drinking water and sewage systems, and three or more years without hospitals.

In addition to the Cascadia Fault line, which is past its known cycle for an earthquake, there is another fault, the Seattle Fault, which runs directly through the city of Seattle on an east-west line from the Olympic Peninsula across the Puget Sound and through Alki Point, crossing central Seattle just south of I-90 into the Kitsap Peninsula. There is a 5 percent chance of a 6.7 magnitude earthquake on the Seattle Fault in the next 50 years and about a 2 percent chance for an earthquake greater than a magnitude 7.0. If that happens, some estimates hold that damage will be even worse than a magnitude 9.0 Cascadia subduction zone earthquake.

Disaster preparedness for our community has to become a priority. All that we have done in the community and all we want to do will be inconsequential in the shadow of one of these disasters. Unless, we become part of the solution before the problem. Our solution: is to work with youth organizations, like Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, and Cub Scouts to help build our community resiliency to disasters like earthquakes.

Our first annual Great Cascadia Zombie Challenge was held on October 5, 2019. During the first session 42 Girl Scouts and their leaders (22 adults) participated in a first ever Great Cascadia Zombie Academy. During this session they had deep-dive training into specific survival skills and they also participated in our Elk-led Great ShakeOut activity. After the training was over, more than 20 of the girls then went through the various rocker stations outside and also earned their Great Cascadia Zombie Challenge badge and rockers.

From 10:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. another 115 girls and their leaders (54 adults) went through the nine rocker challenge events. Several of these event stations were led by Elks and these girls also participated in the Elk-led Great ShakeOut activity.

The Bremerton Elks Lodge #1181 received a $2,500 Beacon Grant from the Elks National Foundation (ENF) which enabled us to buy the Great Cascadia Zombie Challenge Center badge and 9-rocker sets for 250 Girl Scouts completing the challenge or academy.

In 2020 and 2021 we also were able to obtain $2,500 – $3,500 in grant support to continue this program virtually. We look forward to hosting this event again some time in the future. We loved being part of the training to help prepare girls and their ‘zombie’ families for disaster!!!