Our Perfect Vision Award recipient, Newport Harbor Elks, is a modular, interactive website for the Benevolent and Protective Order of the Elks Lodge 1767.

The Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks (BPOE; also often known as the Elks Lodge or simply The Elks) is an American fraternal order and social club founded in 1868. It is one of the leading fraternal orders in the U.S., claiming nearly one million members.

The Elks had modest beginnings in 1868 as a social club (then called the “Jolly Corks”) established as a private club to elude New York City laws governing the opening hours of public taverns. After the death of a member left his wife and children without income, the club took up additional service roles, rituals and a new name. Desiring to adopt “a readily identifiable creature of stature, indigenous to America”, fifteen members voted 8-7 to favor the elk above the buffalo. Early members were mostly from theatrical performing troupes in New York City. It has since evolved into a major American fraternal, charitable, and service order with more than a million members, both men and women, throughout the United States.

Membership was opened to African Americans in the 1970s, although the Winter Haven, Florida Elks Club was famously segregated as late as 1985, when Boston Red Sox Coach Tommy Harper protested a Red Sox policy of permitting them into the spring training clubhouse to issue lodge clubroom invitations to white players only. Women were permitted to join in the mid-1990s, but currently atheists are excluded. The Oregon Public Accommodations Act, which was found by an appeals court to apply to the BPOE, mandated the opening of membership to women and it has been speculated that the religious restriction might be litigated on the same basis. A year after the national organization changed its policy to allow women to join, the Vermont Supreme Court ordered punitive damages of $5,000 for each of seven women whom a local chapter had rejected citing other reasons. Current members are required to be U.S. citizens over the age of 21 and believe in God.

Perfect Vision Award winner Newport Harbor Elks is administered by Webmaster John Hayden.

Related Website Templates at Perfectory Web Design Services:
Society and Culture Templates

This culturally aware website for Native American drug and alcohol recovery is our latest Perfect Vision Award recipient. The website provides in-depth content for prospective program participants along with a unique housing tour and video testimonials.

The Native American Choices program is based on an adapted Traditional Native American Healing Model founded on a holistic approach that connects healing and treatment to Native traditions such as prayer, dance, drumming, song, sweat lodges, smudging and other spiritual ceremonies. The program functions with an awareness of the events of collective indigenous history and maintains sensitivity to the individual experience of each client.

The Native American Choices program emphasizes all aspects of a life of value: value for family and community, value of economic independence, and value for one’s personal recovery goals. By continually striving towards values of self-sufficiency in both personal and economic connections, individual resilience and community energy are strengthened and a program participant’s quality of life is positively impacted with enduring results.

Perfect Vision Award Winner, Native American Choices is a unique website specifically tailored to address the goals of this program and provide comprehensive information to Native American Indians and Alaskan Natives with special needs.

Related Website Templates at Perfectory Web Design Services:
Medical Website Templates
Society and Culture Website Templates