“There’s no better feeling than making a difference in the lives of children, seniors and communities.”

That’s the statement that greets visitors on the home page for the Moose International website, and it’s that kind of commitment that members of the Buchanan Moose Lodge have embraced for 50 years.

Loyal Order of Moose Lodge 2182 is the official designation for the Buchanan area fraternal organization’s meeting and social hall that is tucked away on a private drive off Fairview Street, past Third Street and adjoining Interstate 81 in Buchanan.

The original part of the two-story building dates to not long after the lodge was organized and officially chartered on March 29, 1968.

Until the lodge was built, members gathered in the old H.L Williams Funeral Home on Main Street— where the Buchanan Post Office now sits, charter member Bill Hylton explains.

By the early 1980s, the Buchanan Moose was able to add a second floor meeting area, a large room that has been available for a variety of Moose and community activities.

The fraternal organization’s namesake, a bull moose, hangs on the wall over a small stage on one end of the room.

Downstairs, tables, a bar and game area provide members with a social area where they can gather to talk and eat.

While the lodge itself serves as headquarters central, its members are known for reaching out into the community as a service organization and not just a fraternal lodge.

An example is the youth trout fishing rodeo on April 28 at member Steve Thrasher’s pond in Springwood. That’s a fundraiser for 2-year-old Jalin Downhour who has cerebral palsy.

The following weekend, on May 5, Thrasher’s pond will be filled with trout again, this time to host a Wheelin’ Sportsmen’s fishing event for the handicapped. That’s done in conjunction with the Botetourt Longbeards Chapter and Virginia Wheelin’ Sportsmen Chapter of the National Wild Turkey Federation (NWTF).

The Moose Lodge partners with the Botetourt Longbeards and others regularly. Each November, Moose Lodge members help with the Wheelin’ Sportsmen handicapped deer hunt with the Longbeards and Mill Creek Baptist Church’s Outdoor Ministry.

And the Longbeards have been donating frozen turkeys for several years at Thanksgiving when the Moose Lodge holds its annual Thanksgiving Dinner for the community’s senior citizens.

If the lodge has a signature event, the Thanksgiving Dinner is it.

It started right after the Flood of 1985, member and current Governor Marty Rickman explains. The James River that runs through Buchanan crested at 35 feet in early November that year, devastating homes and businesses. Many lost everything in the flood.

The Moose Lodge responded. It already had some folks sleeping there. Then, members decided to provide a Thanksgiving Dinner for anyone who wanted to come.

It was a gesture that provided at least some momentary relief from the work of rebuilding a town.

It’s also a tradition that has continued each Thanksgiving since (except one, Rickman notes).

Each year, 75 to 80 people— now mostly seniors— gather on the second floor of the Moose Lodge for a traditional Turkey Dinner, and the Moose members send or deliver another 25 meals for those who can’t get to the lodge.

As the lodge officers sit around tables talking about all of the things the Buchanan Moose contributes to, it’s hard to keep up— the Buchanan Community Carnival, individual donations to families that need help, Relay for Life, the Buchanan Easter Egg Hunt, scores of fundraisers for local people who are ill or injured, or lost a home to fire— and the list goes on.

Earlier in the month, the lodge hosted a cake walk that raised $5,400; and it regularly donates the use of the upstairs for fundraisers.

“We’ve raised tens of thousands of dollars for local people in need,” Lodge Administrator John Ware continues.

Right after the recent Florida hurricane, the lodge loaded up supplies that went to Salem to be taken south with other Moose Lodges’ donations.

The donations included a check for what they learned people in Florida needed most— hammers and nails.

“We do a lot of good work that people don’t know about,” Hylton adds.

“And we have a lot of fun with most of it,” Rickman continues.

The Buchanan Moose also supports Moose International’s main missions, as well, MooseHeart, MooseHaven and Moose Charities.

MooseHeart is a residential childcare facility, located on a 1,000-acre campus 38 miles west of Chicago. The “Child City” is a home for children and teens in need, from infancy through high school. It was dedicated in 1913 by the Moose fraternal organization to care for youth whose families are unable to do so for a wide variety of reasons.

MooseHaven is a retirement community exclusively for Moose members. It is located on the banks of the St. Johns River in Orange Park, Fla.

Moose also supports Special Olympics, Boy Scouts, other charities in the community and national scholarships.

Unlike many social and fraternal organizations, Buchanan Moose Lodge is growing, Lodge Prelete Carson Scaggs explains. “We’re fortunate,” he says. The lodge numbers over 150 members now.

While the lodge is an all-men’s organization, it does not have a Women of the Moose— the ladies make a huge contribution to the order. “All our spouses help with everything,” Thrasher said. “The women are great volunteers.”

Two ladies actually keep the show running, so to speak. Liz Newell and Tammy Dunbar are lodge employees. “They are the bomb,” Thrasher adds. “Among several others. If it weren’t for the ladies, we wouldn’t be here.”

The core of the Moose is another quote visitors will find on the organization’s website:  “A burden heavy to one is borne lightly by many.”

This “is what makes us unique in our Lodges, local communities and charitable ‘cities’ that we support,” the website says.

The Buchanan lodge is one of about 80 in Virginia. Members can go to any other lodge anywhere.

The organization can be traced to 1888 and the founder of the Moose, Dr. Henry Wilson, who successfully established the first lodge in Louisville, Ky., according to the Moose website. In the early years, Moose was organized to offer men an opportunity to gather socially, to care for one another’s needs and celebrate life together.

Today, the Loyal Order of Moose and Women of the Moose have a combined membership of over 1 million members with lodges in over 1,500 communities across all 50 states and four Canadian provinces, and in Great Britain and Bermuda. The Moose organization contributes between $75- to $100-million worth of community service (counting monetary donations, volunteer hours worked and miles driven) annually, the website says.

Back in the late ’60s when there was an interest in forming a Buchanan Lodge, folks were traveling to Natural Bridge or other lodges.

That’s when 51 Buchanan area men joined to charter the then new lodge. That charter also hangs on the wall in the upstairs meeting room.

Many of those men have passed on, but several are still around and active; or their sons or grandsons have picked up the mantel of charitable work the fraternal organization does.

The Buchanan Moose Lodge meets twice monthly, and accepts new members. It requires a background check (no felonies), and inquiries can be directed to any member or John Ware. For more information about Moose, visit www.mooseintl.org.