Our History

Getting Started

St. Cloud Elks Lodge Development Committee

The first meeting was held on the 1st Thursday of August 2004 at the American Legion Post #76 on Lincoln Avenue.  We had about 50 members/interested people at the first meeting.  It was decided at that meeting that there was obviously enough interest in going forward with creating a lodge that we would formally ask to be recognized by the Grand Lodge. 

But before that first meeting, a lot of work was done to make it happen.

July of 2004

It all started when Aaron T. Lundblad found that his family was going to have to move to Saint Cloud, MN from Bemidji, MN in late July of 2004.  Aaron’s wife Julie was offered a position at the then named Saint Cloud Technical College.  and upon finding out this information, Aaron called up his good friend and Brother, Dean Holm from Duluth Lodge #133, who had just become Minnesota State President the month before, and made him a promise that as a tribute to his friendship and Elks Presidency, he would have a new Elks Lodge created in Saint Cloud before the end of his term the following June.  Aaron was recovering from some injuries, and had resolved to put his own career goals on hold to be a stay at home father of their than 3 year old daughter, Skylyr; as well as their one year old triplets, Xander, Cade, and Raegan.  In his down time he was able to request a “Stray Elks List” for the area that would become the new lodge, as well as a “New Lodge Development ‘Kit’” from the Grand Secretary’s office. 

Upon receiving the Stray Elks List, the process of contacting all of the current members of the organization that lived in the area began.  First, there was a letter of introduction that went out to each member asking them to fill out a postage paid postcard signifying whether or not they were interested in being a part of creating a new lodge.

While waiting for the return of the initial interest, a location and time was picked to hold an organizational meeting to get things more formalized.  The date picked to hold our first meeting was Aug 19, 2004 at 7pm at the American Legion Post #76 on the East Side of Saint Cloud just off of Lincoln Avenue. 

After enough positive responses were received by current members, a follow-up letter went out to these members inviting them to the August 19th meeting.  Each member was encouraged to bring along friends and neighbors who may be interested in joining as well.  The MN Elks Association placed an ad for this meeting in the Saint Cloud Times as well, inviting the general public to participate (this was the only expense the State ever had to create #2843).  This initial meeting generated a response of over 50 people, some members some non-members, all interested in starting the process of getting a lodge started.  Not much official was done at the first meeting, except having everyone sign a petition of intent, Choosing an official name for our committee, and picking a regular meeting time and place.  The committee was officially called “The Saint Cloud Elks Lodge Development Committee”, and we decided to meet every other Thursday. 

Once we had a core group showing up each and every meeting we choose a President, Secretary, and Treasurer.  Dan Graven was the committee’s President, Aaron Lundblad was the Secretary, and Larry Nusbaum was Treasurer.  We started to act as an extension of the Lodge that currently controlled Saint Cloud, which was the Willmar Lodge.  We attempted to get Americanism Essays for them as well as Scholarships.  Our committee also held a local hoop shoot contest on behalf of Willmar Lodge, sending a number of contestants to the Willmar competition. 

By January of 2005, we were asked which District we would be interested in joining upon Lodge Dispensation.  As each district in Minnesota had 7 lodges except the Metro District which had 6, we decided to even out the districts and join the Metro District.  At this point we started having the District Deputy Grand Exalted Ruler (DDGER) attending our meetings on a regular basis to help push through the paper work to turn our committee into an actual Lodge.

It was determined that Minneapolis Elks Lodge #44 would act as our sponsoring or “Mother” Lodge.  Members of that Lodge would be responsible for performing the Ritual of Instituting a Lodge.  Sometime around March of 2005 we were given word that we were approved and were going to be issued a Lodge Charter.  This required us to determine who was needing to be initiated, and transferred, or reinstated as members and how membership numbers would be determined.   At this meeting Aaron Lundblad asked that he be given the honor of Member # 00001, and that his wife Julie be given #00002.  Dan Graven requested #00003, Peter Collier (a strong supporter to this point), stated he had always wanted to be James Bond 007, so he was given member #00007, beyond these few requests and honors, no one else made any requests and the rest of the numbers could be filled out randomly.  Those who required transfer or reinstatement, filled out the proper forms for the proper lodge, and new members filled out applications, and we could vote on them. 

The Lodge Begins

May 7th, 2005

This was the day chosen to institute our lodge.  The ceremony was held at the Atwood Center on Saint Cloud University campus.  Followed by a reception in a suite at the Park Inn nearby.  Minneapolis Lodge #44 performed the ritual of institution perfectly.   There was a video recording of the event taken by one of the members of the Minneapolis Lodge #44.  After our institution, the first officers of the new lodge were installed by the same officers of Minneapolis Lodge #44, followed by them performing the first initiation of the 15 new members in attendance.  The new officers were required to perform a few required votes so that the Lodge could accept money, etc. 

After the Ritual requirements were performed, each member lodge in attendance presented gifts of items or money to the new lodge.  This included the following;

·         Bemidji – Flag Day set of Flags

·         Alexandria - $1500 check

·         Owatonna – Presented us with our first lodge pin

·         Fergus Falls – Presented an Elk Mount that once looked over the old #516 Lodge, and their own.

·         Minneapolis – Presented the Lodge with Jewels, an alter Elk and Bible, as well as Esquire items

·         Faribault – Presented us with a second group of stations including an Esquire and Chaplain station

·         MN Elks Association – gave us the stations from the recently defunct Detroit Lakes Lodge 

Our first Officers:

         Exalted Ruler – Dan Graven

         Secretary – Aaron Lundblad

         Treasurer – Larry Nusbaum

List of ER’s

2005-06 – Dan Graven (given full year credit as a PER, as a first year ER)

2006-07 – Harold Slocum/Brad Slocum

2007-08 – Brad Slocum    

2008-09 - James Michael

2009-10 - Steve Zinken

2010-11 - Mark Eliason

2011-12 - Patrica "Patches" Presfield

2012-13 - Marcia Thole-La Vine

2013-14 - Stephanie Larson

2014-15 - Tim Klemik

2015-16 – Frank Presfield

2016-17 – Aaron T. Lundblad

2017-18 – Aaron Huesinkveld

2018-19 – Aaron Huesinkveld

2019-20 – Aaron Huesinkveld

2020-21 – Aaron T. Lundblad

2021-22 – Aaron T. Lundblad

2022-23 – Mark Maier

2023-24 – Cathie Ahrensfeld