Festival Of Trees Helps Toms River Elks Serve The Community

TOMS RIVER, NJ — The trees are up. The mailboxes are ready. And Thursday, the hall at the Toms River Elks 1875 will be welcoming the community for the annual Festival of Trees.

The festival celebrates the good works of nonprofit organizations, inviting people to show their support by making donations to their favorite causes.

It also is an opportunity for the Elks to give back to the community, which is the most important thing they do, members said on a recent evening.

"Elkdom is about uplifting everyone around us," said Elizabeth Lightbody-Cimer, the exalted ruler of the Toms River Elks Lodge 1875, which is marking its 75th anniversary in April.

"Everything we do is geared to the community," said Eileen Coyne, a past exalted ruler of the lodge who chairs the event. It was Coyne who created it, back in 2014, after seeing a similar event in Monmouth County.

Nonprofit organizations are invited to bring and decorate Christmas trees themed to their organization, and the public is invited to the lodge to see the trees and vote for their favorites at the Festival of Trees celebration. Votes are $1 each, and the five organizations that receive the most votes will receive cash prizes. In addition, every organization gets to keep the cash that was donated during the voting.

The Elks do not charge organizations to participate, and they do not charge the public to attend the event, which includes free food and beverages. There will be baked goods available for purchase that support the Elks Foundation, which gives grants and provides programs for the community, and there will be a 50/50 raffle. The Toms River Multigenerational Orchestra is scheduled to provide live entertainment.

This year's Festival is from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Elks lodge, 600 Washington St.

The festival has had as many as 40 organizations participating in the past, Coyne said.

"We had trees out in the hallway and in the Antler Room," Lightbody-Cimer said. "It really made it festive for the holidays."

This year, there are 18 nonprofits participating (see the list at the bottom of this article).

The festival is just a sliver of the community service the Elks do. There are programs for special needs children and their families. They have medical equipment that people can borrow — such as wheelchairs and crutches — to cope with a short-term injury or illness. There's bingo weekly and they support groups assisting local veterans.

The Toms River Elks lodge even partnered with the Toms River Regional Schools on a program that provided opportunities for students to work in the community and learn about potential career paths.

"We received a $30,000 grant from the national (Elks) organization," Coyne said, and with it created the Bringing People Opportunities for Employment, back in 2010-11. It took some effort to convince the school district, which was reeling from the Ritacco scandal, but Coyne said the district finally agreed when officials understood they wouldn't be administering the program, but simply providing students to participate.

For the Elks' members — there are more than 1,300 in the Toms River lodge — it's not simply another club.

"These people are my family," Lightbody-Cimer said. Members must pledge to leave politics at the door when they join, along with committing to giving 10-12 hours of volunteer time. While the coronavirus pandemic slowed many organizations and, in some cases, spelled their demise, the Elks remained strong.

"We were initiating members outside during the pandemic," she said.

Lightbody-Cimer's family has a lengthy history in the lodge. Her father, Roden, the longtime Ocean County traffic engineer, was a member. But it was her mother, Novella Lightbody, and her grandmother, a member of the ladies auxiliary, who really set the example of involvement, Lightbody-Cimer said.

"My grandmother would take me with her" to the lodge every Saturday, she said. Lightbody-Cimer would set the tables, "and she would go behind me to make sure everything was perfect," she said with a laugh.

Her mother, who served as the lodge's exalted ruler in 2012-13 and 2016-17, pulled her in more directly.

"It started out as a favor to my mom," Lightbody-Cimer said, when she was asked to fill in as a greeter because another member was away.

"I am shy, and public speaking was not something I was comfortable with," she said. But the greeter position was easy enough. Soon, Lightbody-Cimer found herself serving in other officers' positions, learning the ins and outs of how the lodge runs, before ultimately becoming the exalted ruler this year.

Coyne's husband, George, served as exalted in 2010-11 and 2013-14, and their son, Casey, served in that role in 2015-16. Eileen Coyne followed Novella Lightbody's second term as exalted ruler, serving in 2018-19.

For decades the Elks Club only admitted men, and the women were part of the ladies auxiliary, but Coyne said the national organization changed its statutes in the mid-1990s to allow women to be members and serve in all of the Elks' capacities. You must be 21 to be an adult member, but the Elks have a membership program for kids 12 to 21 called Antlers, which allows them opportunities to do community service (many cite their volunteer work for applications to the National Honor Society, to colleges and for scholarships) as well as learn about how the lodge operates, providing the new generation of members to keep the Elks community strong.

Both women said the service to families and children with special needs is among their favorite parts of being in the Elks organization. Some programs are separate, but there are just as many situations where children with special needs are right in the thick of things, according to their abilities. Some help out at bingo night; some assist in the kitchen, learning to cook and helping to serve food. It creates a community and a family for those children as well, who sometimes don't have the opportunity to build friendships in a meaningful way, Lightbody-Cimer said.

"You see the kids' faces light up when they see their friends," she said. "We had a bocce league, where we paired the (special needs) kids with Elk buddies. Pretty soon they decided they didn't need us," because the kids had formed teams among themselves.

"They were having the best time. We just stood there and cheered for the teams," she said with a smile.

Lightbody-Cimer, Coyne and Valerie Marsden-Gray, who just recently joined the Elks lodge and is assisting with its publicity committee, will be cheering hard on Thursday night for all the organizations participating in the Festival of Trees.

The kitchen will be open from 5 p.m.-7 p.m. serving hotdogs and burgers, and there will be an indoor smores table, make-and-take crafts for kids or adults, and more.

Here are the organizations participating, and their tree numbers:

1. Deborah Heart & Lung Center: The region’s only heart, lung and vascular specialty hospital.
Celebrating 100 years of life-saving care with never rendering a bill to a Patient or family.
609-893-6611 www.demanddeborah.org.

2. Community Options: Supports people with disabilities by providing residential, employment support and day habilitation programs. www.comop.org.

3. LADACIN Network: Provides care, including educational, therapeutic, social, residential and support services to infants, children and adults with complex physical and developmental disabilities or delays, serving more than 3,500 people in Monmouth and Ocean counties. www.ladacin.org.

4. CASA of Ocean County: Court Appointed Special Advocates of Ocean County advocates for children in foster care. 732-797-0590. www.casaofoceancounty.org.

5. Arc, the Ocean County Chapter: The Arc provides programs and support services to people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, serving more than 1,000 people with disabilities and their families. The Arc, Ocean County Chapter please call 732-363-3335 or visit www.arcocean.org.

6. Vetwork: It is dedicated to providing a full spectrum of free services designed around veterans and their specific needs. www.vetwork.org.

7. Ocean County Family Support Organization: Community-based organizations provide peer-to-peer support, education, and advocacy to parents and caregivers of children with mental health and behavioral challenges, developmental disabilities, child welfare, substance use, and juvenile justice system involvement. 732-569-6334. www.oceanfso.org.

8. Caregiver Volunteers of Central Jersey: The interfaith nonprofit organization provides free supportive services for anyone over the age of 60 who no longer drive. 732-505-2273. www.caregivervolunteers.org.

10. K's Kitten Rescue: The rescue is a 501c3 cat and kitten rescue registered with the State of New Jersey whose mission is to promote, support and carry out trap-neuter-release programs in our area, and find homes for any adoptable cats and kittens. We fully vet all cats and run vet and home checks on all adopters. www.kskittenrescue.org.

11. Interfaith Health & Support Services of Southern O.C.: We put God’s love into action by promoting wellness, independence and alleviation of loneliness and suffering to our vulnerable in need. 609-978-3839. www.InterfaithSOC.org.

12. Beach Days For All: Our mission and vision is to create better beach access for people with disabilities, elderly, war veterans and any other mobility issue. Beach Days for All donates hard Matrax panels to the town to create a T-shape on the beach extending closer to the ocean to allow people who need to use motorized wheelchairs, canes, walkers the ability to access our beaches.

13. Ocean County Artist’s Guild: Works with the region to bring high-quality cultural experiences
through art education, demonstrations, lectures, and concerts. 732-270-3111. www.ocartistsguild.org.

14. Childhood Leukemia Foundation: The organization has helped more than 275,000 young cancer patients since 1992. Our programs are free of charge and designed to address the emotional and educational needs of the children we serve.

15. Ocean's Harbor House: Ocean’s Harbor House provides an emergency youth shelter for those 10-19 years old and a transitional living program for youth 16-22 years old. 732-929-0096. www.oceansharborhouse.org.

16. Soldier On: This private nonprofit organization provides homeless veterans with transitional housing and supportive services, along with services for veterans families and more. 866-406-8449. www.wesoldieron.org.

17. Providence House Domestic Violence Services of Ocean County: Provides free services to victims of domestic violence, including a 24-hour hotline and an emergency safe house that currently is providing emergency shelter services to 150 women and children. They offer counseling, a children’s program, legal advocacy, a domestic violence response team and more.732-350-2120. www.catholiccharitiestrenton.org/domestic-violence-services/.

18. S.A.V.E. Rescue Shelter: Established in 2002, the 501(c)(3) takes unwanted, homeless and abandoned animals and provides them with medical care and a safe and nurturing environment until they find permanent homes. SAVE is a no-kill shelter.

19. Boy Scouts of America Troop 50: Members of Joshua Huddy District, Jersey Shore Council, Boy Scouts of America. The troop teaches its members leadership skills and life skills.