Maine Elks ritual team wins 3rd New England title

NASHUA, N.H. – For the third year in a row, the Maine Elks Association Ritual Team won the Area I Interstate-Relations Ritual Roulette Contest, held Sept. 21 in Nashua, N.H. The competition promotes excellence in performance of the Elks initiation ritual and fosters better relations among the state associations.

Teams from across New England and New York were invited to compete in the contest, which involves four of seven officers drawing for ritual parts five minutes before the contest. The four officers must memorize four parts, including the Exalted Ruler, Leading Knight, Loyal Knight and Lecturing Knight positions.

The officers then perform as a team before several judges, who evaluate them on impressiveness, pronunciation, word accuracy, deportment (movements) and appearance. Deductions are made for each mistake, and the total is deducted from a perfect score of 100 points. The team from Maine placed first with 97 points.

Earning recognition as Area I Champions are: Exalted Ruler, Rick Williams (Biddeford-Saco); Leading Knight, Frank Ricker (Sanford); Loyal Knight, Joe Marquis (Bath); Lecturing Knight, Bruce Brunelle (Sanford); Esquire, Paul Norman (Sanford); Chaplain, Floyd Howes (Biddeford-Saco); Inner Guard, Wayne Cotterly (Lewiston); Candidate, Gail Howes (Biddeford-Saco); and Coach, Phil O’Brion (Farmington). Also contributing to the team’s win was assistant coach Harry Desjardins (Biddeford-Saco).

In addition to winning the overall team competition, several individual awards were earned. These awards were presented to Rick Williams, Frank Ricker, Joe Marquis, Bruce Brunelle, Wayne Cotterly and Gail Howes for achieving the highest scores in their respective chairs.

With its third win in a row, the Maine team earned the right to retire the championship trophy, which had been held by several other New England states since 1992. The trophy will be presented to the Maine Elks Association at its quarterly meeting Oct. 12 in Augusta.