In Good Company

It would have worried most other lodges, picking up shop and moving operations to a new building. Would the membership lose its sense of place? Would the community no longer feel connected? Would they be unmoored?

But then again, Elk Grove Lodge № 173 isn’t like most other lodges—and that’s precisely what drew Mauro Lara to it in the first place just four years ago. Like lodges elsewhere in the state, the pandemic had put new pressure on Elk Grove, reducing its membership and forcing a hard look at how they operated, which included downsizing. But instead of despairing, the members of Elk Grove decided this was a time for a strategic reset. “Key officers had an interest to double down on community engagement,” Lara says. “I knew this was a place I could get excited about working at—so I affiliated.”

Now seated in the East in the lodge’s new home, Lara is leading an impressive program of events and activities that he hopes will reinvigorate the membership and the community. And he has reason to feel it will. “Over the past 12 to months, we’ve already welcomed four new Entered Apprentices,” Lara says.

Thus far, the key to the lodge’s renewed public image has been following a simple system: pursuing what worked before. That has meant participating in parades—and when they get dispensations from Grand Lodge, to do it in full regalia. It’s also meant leaning into community work. Last year alone the lodge donated enough food to the Elk Grove Food Bank to provide more than 10,000 meals for local families. “If we want folks to see us as a vibrant part of the community, we have to show up,” Lara says.