By Baker Ellis

baker.ellis@lagrangenews.com

On Saturday, July 8, the LaGrange Elks Lodge hosted its third annual Elks Care – Elks Share Adoption Event, which was a joint effort held alongside the LaGrange-Troup County Humane Society.

“We do a lot of stuff for the veterans and first responders, we wanted to do something out of the box,” Brian Howard, Elks Lodge member responsible for coordinating the event, said. “We’ve done pet adoption events before and wanted to do another. I’m a big animal lover and wanted to see the dogs go to a good home.”

Through a grant given to the LaGrange Elks Lodge by the Elks National Foundation, the local Elks Lodge was able to fund the cost of all adoptions that took place on Saturday.

“The Elks actually paid for everyone’s adoption,” Howard added. “The (LaGrange-Troup County) Humane Society gave us a great price on adoptions, so all dogs adopted the Elks covered the cost of those adoption fees. This is something I’m passionate about.”

The Elks National Foundation is the charitable giving arm of The Elks, with a mission to help Elks build stronger communities, investing in communities where Elks live and work.

“The National Foundation is a trust that anyone, not even an Elk, but most Elks donate to, said Elks Lodge member Steve Hernley. “The state of Georgia last year gave around $35-40,000 to the Foundation. In return, the Foundation has a number of grants they provide to the lodges. We got a total of $120,000 back from the Foundation in the state of Georgia, where we only donated $40,000.”

The LaGrange-Troup County Humane Society was thrilled to be able to partner with the LaGrange Elks Lodge in order to facilitate the adoption of worthy animals.

“We’re so happy and thankful that The Elks are willing to have us out here,” said Mandi Bono, Executive Director of the LaGrange-Troup County Humane Society. “They partnered with us to help cover the adoption costs today to help make the cost more affordable, and we really appreciate that.”

Three dogs were adopted at the event, per Bono, and two more were scheduled to be picked up on Monday.

Reporter Alicia Hill contributed to this story.