On February 25, 2023, the Maine Elks Association held its annual State Ritual Contest at the Waterville Elks Lodge. This was the first time in several years that there was more than one team competing in the contest and that the event was held outside of the Sanford Lodge.
The Waterville team performed first at 9 a.m., followed by Sanford. Those attending witnessed some good ritual performances, but in the end, Sanford came out on top with a team score of 95.891 vs. Waterville’s score of 92.9376. Individual awards were presented to the top-scoring officers in the competition. These include:
- Exalted Ruler-Frank Ricker (93.351)-Sanford
- Leading Knight: J. Andrew Bolz (94.753)-Sanford
- Loyal Knight-Marise Anagnost (93.321)-Sanford
- Lecturing Knight-Jennifer Young (93.617)-Waterville
- Chaplain-Corey Dewitt (92.783)-Sanford
- Inner Guard-Elmer Brown (90.717)-Waterville
- Candidate-Sheila Pillsbury-Sanford
- Coaches: Frank Ricker & Bruce Brunelle-Sanford
While Waterville may not have won the competition, two of its members performed well enough to win their chairs. They include the Lodge’s Exalted Ruler, Jennifer Young, who competed as the Lecturing Knight, and Elmer Brown, who competed as the Inner Guard. Brown has been a member for only a few months. The team was very excited that they performed as well as they did taking into account the fact that the lodge was going up against a much more experienced team. The Waterville team is looking forward to improving their ritual performance even more later this year to compete in the contest once again in February 2025.
Sanford has now earned the honor of traveling to the Grand Lodge Convention in Austin, Texas, this July to represent the Maine Elks Association in the national ritualistic competition.