Friday dinners during Lent aid special needs children
By Doug Carman, Staff Writer
EAST WINDSOR For some Christians, Lent brings six weeks of fasting, penance and charity leading to Easter Sunday. For the Hightstown Elks Lodge, charity is fried, baked and served on a plate, and its members are hoping to serve a lot of it through Good Friday.
Baked salmon and flounder are this Friday’s catches of the week at Lenten Fish Frydays, the Elks’ biggest fundraiser to send special needs children to summer camp at Elks Camp Moore in Haskell, Passaic County.
Elks Lodge secretary Pat O’Brien said the Fish Frydays kicked off March 11 and will continue each Friday from 6 to 8 p.m. at the lodge through April 22.
Along with fish, the menu also includes french fries or pasta, salad, bread, drinks and desserts. All of it homemade.
”We have … one lady who’s a premier marinara sauce maker,” Ms. O’Brien said glowingly.
The chow including the clam chowder is put out by a kitchen staff of four or five people with up to 30 other volunteers helping out. Dinners are being sold at $10 for adults, $9 for seniors and $5 for children 5 to 10 years old, while children under 5 eat for free.
Last year, the Elks served up an average of 90 dinners a night, which Ms. O’Brien described as its best turnout. This year, she said the Elks hope to make a $3,000 to $4,000 profit for the children.
The Hightstown Elks Lodge will use the money to send children to the summer camp next year. The children going this summer were being sent using last year’s money. Ms. O’Brien said four children are going from East Windsor and Hightstown, with two more on the waiting list who also should be registered soon.
Ms. O’Brien said that because of the needs of the children many of them with autism, cerebral palsy and ailments that might require constant monitoring and special equipment it costs about $500 to send one to the camp for the week. The camp has swimming pools, an arts and crafts center and play areas designed to be handicapped accessible, and it has additional counselors, nurses and doctors on site for people with severe disabilities.
With the donations, the costs are absorbed by the lodge.
”We do not ask for money from the parents. It does not matter if they’re low income or high income,” Ms. O’Brien said. “We had parents who could afford to send them donate the money, and it helps us send more kids.”
Though the lodge primarily serves East Windsor and Hightstown, it also helps children from West Windsor, Cranbury and Plainsboro.
The Hightstown Elks Lodge is located at 110 Hickory Corner Road, East Windsor. For more information, call 609-448-9794.

