Home Service Program
Since 1963, the Pennsylvania Elks Home Service program has been helping improve the quality of life for thousands of children and adults throughout Pennsylvania. The program provides free in-home support and advocacy services by nurses and medical case coordinators to Pennsylvania residents with congenital neurological and developmental disabilities. It is funded primarily via Lodge fundraising and contributions from individual Elks members, with supplemental funding from the Pennsylvania State Elks Association Legacy Trust (a trust fund also funded by Pennsylvania Elks Lodges and individual Elks Members), and grants from the State of Pennsylvania. The program employs 25 full-time Registered Nurses who in 2019 traveled 332,117 miles to make 14,513 home visits across every county in Pennsylvania. The program has received excellence awards from United Cerebral Palsy of Pennsylvania, the Governor’s Private Sector Initiative Task Force, and the Pennsylvania Department of Health, among many others. Under the stewardship of a PA West District Home Service Program coordinator (and, later, Home Service Program State Chairman) from Allegheny Lodge, the PA West District (of which Allegheny Lodge is a member) has been the only district ever in which not only did every Lodge hit its per-capita fundraising totals for a year, but did so six years in a row.