TESA Special Fund
GER Pin

As you are aware, the first Grand Exalted Ruler from Texas was Judge Atwell in 1926. We went another 67 years before a Grand Exalted Ruler could call Texas "home" when in 1993 the Honorable Charles F. Williams became our nation's Elk leader. Many do not understand that the state having the honor of a favorite son as Grand Exalted Ruler has some financial obligations that goes with this honor.

In 1992 when it became known that Chuck would be our next Grand, a committee was formed to undertake the monumental task or raising the needed funds to insure Chuck was installed as Grand correctly. Starting from scratch, this committee raised approximately $114,000 in a little over 13 months.

Always planning for the future, TESA adopted this committee concept with hopes of raising funds in the event another Grand Exalted Ruler from Texas would be selected well before the 67 years it took between Texas Grand's the last time.

Ed Salazar, PDDGER, is this year's Chairman and offers you the following pins in hope of keeping the GER Special Fund alive and well.

This was the first pin issued in late July or early August of 1992. This pin was presented to all parties that contributed $20.00 towards the Special Fund. There are 88 of these pins available at this time.

This pin along with the next pin were obtained in the spring of 1993 and issued when Charles F. Williams was installed as Grand Exalted Ruler in July of 1993. The pin with Chuck’s name and GER was presented to anyone that contributed a total of $50.00 to the Special Fund Program. There are 400 of these pins available.

This is the pin that was presented to anyone that contributed $100.00 to the Special Fund Program. There are only 14 of these pins available on a first come first served basis. There will be no more of these pins made.

This pin was obtained to complete a set of four total pins. It is the same pin as the $100.00 pin except that it has a gold star added to it. This pin is only available as part of the set. Please see the next picture.

This set is available for a total contribution of $200.00. A few of these were presented to contributors at the Grand Lodge session held in Portland in July of 1993. There are 20 gift-boxed sets available on a first come first served basis at this time. There are no plans to make any more of these pins.

At one point there was discussion on the idea of a $500.00 pin. The pin that eventually was made was the "Chuck’s Century Circle" pin.

The plan was to get 100 of these pins to get 100 good Elks that could afford to contribute $100.00 a year for ten years. It must have started out OK, because Ed only has about 26 of these pins left. The original was acquired by the contributor for an initial donation of $200.00. It had the 1993-1994 & 1994-1995 bars with the pin. Additional bars were obtained each year and issued to those that remained active.

The list of active participants was lost due to a computer failure and a good replacement list has been hard to reconstruct. We lost our ability to stay in touch with those good Elks in this program. A couple of years ago Ed passed along the idea that perhaps we could scale back the Century pin program to reflect a $50.00 per year donation and close it out as a total donation of $350.00. We also discussed that a few good members had already donated for at least 4 or 5 years.

To those that did, the rest of the bars as well as the final 1993-2000 bar would be provided at no additional cost as a way of saying "thanks" for what you have done already. About 3 or 4 people that had 3 bars have made their final contribution and a couple have shown that they have 4 or more of the bars and Ed completed the set for them. If you are one of the people that were a part of the Century Circle and have at least 4 bars, please contact Ed so that he may send you the final bar that you see illustrated here. If you have less than the necessary bars and would like to complete your pin, please contact Ed.

Any Lodge that would like to sponsor a function and be able to present these pins to those who support the function or any Elks who would like to purchase any of these pins can call or email Ed Salazar, PDDGER, Committee Chairman, at edsitxelk@yahoo.com for the facts on how it works.

Click here to place your request direct to Ed.

TESA Special Fund GER Pin

TESA Special Fund
GER Pin