 Whenever there would be any really catastrophe that was in the movies or on the air, she would say, always look for the helpers. There will always be helpers. Welcome to Values. I'm Shaquille DeLal. This week we're interviewing helpers, people who are responding to the crisis of the coronavirus by reaching out to the community and providing services to support other people. I'm here today with Isaac Olson, he's the head trustee of Elks Lodge number 1055. Isaac, thanks for being here today. Thank you for having me. Can you tell me about the Elks? Absolutely. So the Elks is a community-based organization in Lamont that's been around since 1906. And we are solely focused on providing our community with certain programs that help unite the community but also help in a time of need. How many people are members of the Elks Lodge? Currently our membership is right around 300 people. I believe we just hit our 299 membership last week. You're younger than most Elks that I think about. How long have you been involved with the Elks Lodge? I have been a member at the Elks Lodge for three years this season and so April 1st would be my third year associated with the Elks Lodge. So you mentioned that the Elks is a community-focused organization. Can you talk about some of the services that you guys typically offer to the community? Yes. So especially in such a time of crisis we do offer medical rental programs. We offer different veteran services. We currently in the time of crisis are opening up a food truck park in the parking lot to support the small of smaller businesses in order for them to try to keep their head above the sea level so to speak at this point. And then we do offer different membership check-in services especially for the 300 members that we have. Myself being 32 I am on the younger side of the membership. We do have a lot of individuals that are members that are 16 above that could be very horribly impacted by this virus. We're trying to keep in touch with them to see if they need any medical needs. If they need somebody to go shopping for them. Just trying to touch base with them to see what we can do for them. Can you tell me a little bit about the medical supply rental program you were on? Yes. So for individuals that are coming out of surgery, for the elderly, for individuals that may need a piece of medical equipment that they cannot afford. We do have a medical rental program which allows individuals to come and stop by the lodge, rent a wheelchair, rent a walker, grab some canes, whatever would help that individual recover quicker at no charge to them. And what about the veteran services that you provide? The veteran services on a normal basis we will collect different canned food items, packs of cards and whatnot to try to help the veterans get through times of crisis. And just check in with the different veterans that are associated with the lodge to be able to kind of help them cope and succeed. I'm really interested in the food truck program you're running. Especially now that Dine and Service has been suspended for all restaurants in the state. There's a lot of concern in the public about beloved neighborhood restaurants going under simply because you know there's not enough customers. Can you tell me about the impetus for the food truck program? Absolutely. So food trucks do not have the luxury most of the time to have a brick and mortar restaurant and so it is very difficult for them in such a time of crisis when Dine in establishments are closed. We as food truck owners rely on different establishments to provide locations for us to sell food. And so when those close businesses are completely shut down and shattered, not to say that brick and mortars themselves aren't experiencing the same thing, food trucks get hit a little bit harder because it's normally a one staff or one owner kind of relation with the business. And so we were reaching out due to the fact that the Elks in Langmont have closed their doors to any individuals coming into the building. We have been formulating a plan to have a pop-up food truck park on the outside in the parking lot. We have plenty of space. It would essentially be a carry in or excuse me carry out call ahead take out service where you can call the individual food trucks booked for that day order food come in curbside and pick up. So we're really trying to do our due diligence and be proactive with the mandated 30 day closure of Dine in restaurants to support the individuals in that industry that are collapsing a little bit quicker. Where is the Elks lodge located? It's 306 Coffman Street in Langmont right on the corner of 3rd and Coffman and that building's been there forever you can't miss it. How have the operations of the Elks lodge changed in response to the coronavirus? That's really a tough one just due to the fact that we are a non-profit based organization. We do make some profits through our members in order to pay staff to keep utilities and different things going like that. With the closure of the doors all of our staff have been temporarily relieved of duties. We are working through continuing to pay them just due to the fact of you know their membership and just the community-based mentality of the Elks themselves. Our programs have kind of diminished a little bit and that was one of the reasons why we wanted to speak upon if you still need something within your community do not be afraid to reach out to the Elks lodge because we will do what we can to support individuals within the Langmont community. For the food truck program how often is it running right now? What are the times? So we have not technically opened the food truck program just due to the fact of how everything has progressed so quickly over the past few weeks even the past days 48 hours we formulated this plan literally within 24 hours of establishment shutting down to dine in and whatnot for the restaurant industry and so we're opening the doors for the food truck program March 23rd at three o'clock. We're going to be running it through Monday through Sunday each day doing three to seven in less hours need to change due to availability of trucks or actually the call of people wanting to come and get food. If people want to offer help to you how can they do that what what sorts of help do you need? For the Elks lodge right now we just need well first and foremost community support just knowing that we are there for our community people reaching out and offering different services I just talked to a gentleman in the lobby that is working for another non-profit and we are actually just through that conversation collaborating with different things that we can do for food industry individuals and their non-profit so if I could stress anything right now in this time it's the community coming together to support the community and just allowing people the feeling of calm during kind of all the calamity to realize that there are people out there that are willing to help other individuals if someone wants to offer help what's the best way to reach you? The best way to reach me you can do it through email which will post on the on the site and you can also contact the lodge directly which is 303-776-1055 and then I'll also have other contact information from my business contact as well. Isaac thank you very much for your time and work today stay healthy. Thank you sir appreciate you