The annual Valentines Dance will be held Saturday, February 11th
Steak dinner at 6:00 PM with dance to follow.
Tickets $10.00 each may be purchased from the bartendars.

Our deepest condolences to the family of "G" who passsed away January 14th. Please keep Greer Goetz family in your prayers. We are all going to miss him and that awsome smile behind the bar. Rest in peace "G".


Our thoughts and prayers go out to the following:
Sammy Puentes, family member passed away
Bob & wife Ellie Brankel; Ellie had surgery
Mike Padilla had surgery
Charles Folk & family; family member passed away
Ramon Maese brother in law passed away
Keith and Carol and family in their loss

PLEASE notify our Administrator Darryl Gerber or Chaplin Frances Chavez should you hear of a member or a member’s immediate family in need of support from our lodge. This will allow us to send good thoughts to those in need and to keep the membership informed of illnesses and distress within our Moose family.

Loyal Order of the Moose, Lodge #2081 of Las Cruces presented a $1,000 donation check to El Caldito Soup Kitchen.
Present were, Lodge Governor Frank Chavez, Trustee Juan Martinez, Darryl Gerber, Enrique Maestas and Gabe Anaya.
Gabe Chavez accepted the donation.
Posted in Las Cruces Sun News 01/12/2012

Article By Reyes Mata III rmata@lcsun-news.com
Posted: 01/10/2012 11:10:12 PM MST in the Las Cruces Sun News

LAS CRUCES - In a batch of communities throughout southern New Mexico, there are groups of folks who chat pleasantly among themselves, play their slot machines and sip their drinks in a "social quarters" - never a bar. They have members-only dances, enchilada dinners, bingo games and, last year alone, quietly helped raise an international juggernaut of $47 million to donate to their communities. They call themselves the Moose Lodge. In New Mexico they have established themselves in 12 communities over the past 50 years - Las Cruces, Silver City, Deming, Alamogordo, Carlsbad, Artesia, Hobbs, Chaparral, Truth or Consequences, Belen, Albuquerque and Rio Rancho - and each month they use money from a special gaming permit, alcohol and snack sales and fundraisers to donate thousands of dollars to people they think need help. "In the past year we gave $20,000 to schools," said Paul Herrera, lodge treasurer for Las Cruces Moose Lodge 2081, which has a membership of about 550. Scholarships, youth athletics, student trips to Washington, the list "goes on and on," said Herrera, himself a member for more than 10 years. "When somebody's house burned down," he recalled, "we gave them $500 to put some clothes on their back, and give them a place to stay, just to help them out." He estimated that the Moose Lodge in Las Cruces donated $75,000 last year to students and organizations in the region. "Most people look at the Moose and think it's just another lodge," said Lawrence Roybal, lodge administrator for the Silver City Moose Lodge 1718, which has 606 male lodge members and 550 female members. "But they don't realize what the Moose really does." His lodge - from a city of about 10,500 - donated more than $100,000 last year. Jerry Rivera, administrator for the Deming Moose Lodge 2088, said Deming donations are not as large as other New Mexico lodges - due to smaller lodge membership and no gaming operation until May - but added he is proud to be "able to say I am part of a group of people interested enough to try and help the less fortunate." The state's largest Moose lodge - Truth or Consequences, Lodge 2050 - has 652 males members and 600 female members and had nearly $64,000 in cash donations last calendar year, said Daryl Conley, lodge administrator. College scholarship recipients accounted for $20,000 of those donations, he said. "It's a good feeling. That's why we are here. A lot of people join Bill Orest, a member of the Moose Lodge for 37 years, leaned against the lodge's wooden bar in Las Cruces as he waited for his drink. "I believe in this wholeheartedly. It's beautiful. It's a worthwhile organization," he said. The Moose Lodge started in Louisville, Ky., in 1888 as a modest social club. But in 1906 James J. Davis, a government clerk from Indiana, joined the 247-member lodge, retooled its management and offered it as a fraternity that provided "protection and security" for its working-class membership, the International Moose website stated. From 1906 to 1912, the two-lodge Moose organization grew to 1,000 lodges and 500,000 members giving it the financial viability to open the Mooseheart children's home of Illinois in 1913 and the Moosehaven retirement home in 1922 in Florida. Both Mooseheart and Moosehaven are the primary operations of the International Moose Lodge. Today about 2,000 lodges with nearly 1 million members in the United States, Canada, Bermuda and Great Britain are continuing to enact the Moose mission statement of providing a place to gather and contribute to every community where a lodge exists. "Every single member who comes in, they hug everyone. It's like a family," said Francis Jimenez, who has been a member of the Las Cruces Moose lodge for two years. Cecilia Mata, another member, said she prefers socializing at the lodge rather than in neighborhood bars. "It's more family oriented, more welcoming," she said. "You know everybody. It's like a family reunion every night," she said. The international organization donated 47.9 million during its last fiscal year, according to Kurt Wehrmeister, director of communications and public affairs for the Loyal Order of the Moose. This includes, he said, volunteer time that is valued at $15 an hour and mileage at 30 cents per mile "plus dollars donated." Bill Cavanaugh, regional manager for Moose International, said the lodges in southern New Mexico are known for doing "fantastic jobs with donations." The Loyal Order of the Moose Lodge, according to the Las Cruces Cashier and Gaming Supervisor Gonzalo Rosales, is "knowing we are doing something worthwhile," he said.
"In the past we were only give a couple of bucks here, a couple bucks there. Now we are giving thousands of dollars away. That's great," he said as he tended to the receipts behind the bar. "We have this opportunity, and we are utilizing it to the best of our ability. Plus, I like the members." Reyes Mata III can be reached at (575) 541-5405.
Lodge activities The Moose Lodge is active in 12 areas of New Mexico and is part of an international network that last year donated $47 million to their respective communities.
Some 2011 Moose Lodge donations:
Las Cruces, Lodge 2081: between $70,000 and $80,000.
Silver City, Lodge 1718: More than $100,000.
Truth or Consequences, Lodge 2050: More than $63,000.
Moose Lodge Information:
Las Cruces: (575) 524-1088
Deming: (575) 546-9137
Silver City: (575) 534-9782
Truth or Consequences: (575) 894-0374
website: www.mooseintl.org