Social clubs like Elks getting back to normal

The Yellowknife Elks Club #14, famous for its Thursday night steak dinners and nightly TV Bingos has been a major mainstay in the downtown core and community and this week members were looking back at a bumpy year due to Covid 19.

Dave Hurley, vice-president, admitted that the club is still getting back to 100 per cent of full operations after public health restrictions were put in place last year. Like most establishments, the Elks was forced to close down between mid-March and mid-June of last year before being allowed to open to a very reduced limit of 25 people. Gradually those numbers were allowed to increase including up to the new year where a maximum 65 are allowed in at one time.

“It has affected everybody because the Elks club is a private club which depends on membership fees and people like to go there because it is nice place and nice place to eat and of course we have our raffles,” Hurley said when asked what the last year has been like with the pandemic.

“Covid took away much of the social aspect of the club and that was the big thing because  it is a place that you go to where you can socialize.

“Because of raffles and other monies we had put away we were actually financially in a pretty good situation. It did it effect us for sure because when not open it effects you, but at end of the day we didn't die because of Covid and we could hold our own.”

Hurley said that the club was successful in getting wage subsidies to help employees make it through the tougher months last year, too. 

“So things aren’t exactly the same as it was and we still have restrictions and safety protocols that we have to follow, but I think today we have managed it very well and we are very cognizant of safety requirements. Our operations are back as normal as normal can be.”

Thursday night steak nights, usually a hit in the community, are one aspect that have returned where the club is averaging between 45 to 60 people.

Other areas, however, like Friday night dinners, which have offered after-work meals from about five to six items have not returned yet.

The regular raffles on Friday nights and Saturday afternoons are also scaled back due to the pandemic as volunteers have to sell tickets from table to table rather than sit at a table to sell tickets, which the club isn't yet allowed to do.

Hurley said that the club has traditionally taken pride in raising money for the community having provided millions of dollars over the years stretching back to 1948, he said.

Much of their fundraising efforts have come from their nightly TV Bingos which appear on Northwestel Channel 20. Those had been discontinued between March and September of last year.

Elks 'full steam'

“Now that we are back and going full steam, that affects our ability to make donations and we are happy that now we can carry on,” he said. 

Last week, proceeds from all of the club's gaming activities allowed for $75,000 to be donated to Habitat for Humanity NWT for its next two builds this year which are In Yellowknife and Behchoko.
Both represent hopefully brighter days ahead for the club, he said.

Another membership-based establishment, the Yellowknife Legion had been struggling quite a bit more last year, according John Mahon, president of the Alberta/NWT Royal Canadian Legion Command.

Last year the Yellowknife Legion was one of many across the NWT and Canada that were calling for supports from the Government of Canada in terms of financial assistance.

The Legion is a social club similar in nature to the Elks because it is membership-based, however has seen those membership requirements evolve over 40 years from made up of veterans to people who care about serving veterans, Mahon explained.

With 166 branches in his region – five of which are in the Northwest Territories and one of which is in Yellowknife – he is happy today that he hasn't lost any of them.

“Let me put it this way things have greatly approved,” he said of the last year.

Key to this has been a $14 million federal grant called the Voluntary Organizations Emergency Support which was announced by Veterans Affairs last November.

Three Legions in the NWT applied for funding assistance – one of which was in Yellowknife - were successful in getting more than $10,000 this past January.

“Basically the money went to those branches that really couldn't pay their bills,” Mahon said.

“When you add up $14 million and across 1,340 branches across the country – at end of the day it might not add up to a lot, but every penny counts.”

Mahon said that much of the credit goes to each individual branches like Yellowknife and their “resiliency” as the threat of closed branches was very real, including in the NWT and in Yellowknife.

“We can now say that there is light at end of tunnel,” he said.

NNSL Media tried to reach Vincent Massey Branch 164 branch president Tammy Roberts on Monday and Tuesday but couldn't secure an interview by press time.