Using her gifts
From left, Coeur d'Alene Elks Lodge members Karen Magner, Caryn Dubke and Teresa Shaw name Dubke the statewide Lady of the Year. This is just the third time in 23 years the award has gone to someone in the local Lodge.
JOSA SNOW/Press
The Lady Elks of Coeur d’Alene Elks have chosen the special one, and Caryn Dubke is it.
Upon receiving news of the high honor, not surprisingly, Dubke was, well ... like an elk in the headlights.
“One, I didn’t even know that this recognition existed,” she said, safely packing the bright red award into a box.
Dubke says she didn’t want the spotlight and tries to stay under the radar.
“This lady has jumped into lodge activities with both feet and volunteered at many events,” said Karen Magner, past exalted lodge ruler.
Since Dubke's husband became a lodge member in 2020, Dubke has helped to fill bags for Thanksgiving dinners, mailed Christmas cards, led silent auctions and fundraisers and helped the elderly file taxes.
Though she’s retired now, Dubke, 53, has also received a victims service award for her work with child victims. She worked for the prosecutor's office in Sacramento, Calif., for nearly 20 years and for Shoshone County for over a year.
Now, Dubke volunteers for the humane society, works at church and does off-site cooking and volunteered the last three years at the Veterans Stand-Down.
She does none of these things for recognition.
“Her husband tells us she donates anonymously to pay for snow removal for elderly neighbors,” Magner said. “And she donates gift cards to families.”
Only non-members can win the Lady of the Year.
The award is given to one spouse of the roughly 8,000 members in 21 lodges across the state. Each lodge nominates an individual to the State Elks Association before a committee selects a winner.
When the Coeur d’Alene Elks heard someone was selected from their lodge, they gasped and applauded with enthusiasm.
The Coeur d’Alene lodge has had three Lady Elks of the Year since the award began in 2000.
Dubke said she's in good company, that it's a good community and the ladies help out by choice.
“Elks have a lot of fundraisers, and I was very involved in a fundraiser last year, sponsored by the Elks, for two brothers who had muscular dystrophy,” Dubke said. “They had aged out of their wheelchairs at age 10, and they’re 24 now.”
She helped raise $16,000 to buy specialized wheelchairs for the brothers by selling trifles and bourbon balls to supplement a GoFundMe page.
“This is an outlet for using my gifts,” Dubke said, explaining simply and beautifully why it is that she does what she does.