COOS BAY - Helping area youth has been a big priority for members of the Coos Bay Elks lodge in recent years. They've organized soccer and basketball events, handed out Christmas presents and put together food packs for disadvantaged local elementary school students.

It's a way of preserving not only the community's future, but also the fraternal organization's as it celebrates its centennial this year.

When the branch formed in 1909, its membership was made up of businessmen, lawyers, a newspaper editor and hoteliers in their 30s and 40s. Membership has ebbed and flowed over the years, but it's also grayed. Many members are twice the age the lodge's founders were in the inaugural year. It's become a goal to attract young men and women into the fold to preserve the group's traditions and keep the lodge alive.

"Getting people to get involved and stay involved is what we hope for," said Mike Huffman Jr., the lodge's exalted ruler.

It used to be easy to find new recruits. In its hey-day, during the 1960s and '70s, the lodge had membership approaching the 2,000 mark. It was common for the lodge to initiate between 10 and 20 new members a month. At one particularly fruitful ceremony in the lodge's 1969-70 year, 103 new members  joined.

"That was when the mills were running full bore," said Cecil Koberstein, a two-time past exalted ruler, as well as a past district deputy grand exalted ruler.

The lodge has always attracted members from a variety of professions, though its fortunes have been heavily influenced by the drop in the timber and shipping industries. Lumber mill owner L.J. Simpson was among the 25 charter members that the Roseburg lodge sponsored July 15, 1909.

As membership swelled into 1980, the group decided to move out of its original Elks temple, on Second Street in downtown Coos Bay, into a much more spacious facility on Radar Hill. But as timber jobs dwindled, so too did the number of Coos Bay Elks. The lodge had to abandon its new home in the 1990s and spent several years in a temporary space before establishing a permanent lodge at 265 Central Ave.

The lodge has about 350 members, a number which may have fallen more sharply were it not for the decision in the '90s to initiate women. The decision came following a lawsuit in the Midwest, said Sharon Koberstein, Cecil's wife and chairwoman of the centennial committee. She was one of the first three to break the gender barrier at the local lodge. Initially, there was some resentment, she said, though they've since been readily accepted.

"It would be hard for them to turn us down," Koberstein said.

While there are fewer Elks members, the organization continues its community project mission.

"Elks has had fewer members, but we are doing more," said secretary Lou Kolkhorst.

They've gotten involved with Easter egg hunts, sponsoring Boy Scouts food events and fundraising for various organizations, including food cupboards and the Make-a-Wish Foundation. They also have been manning booths at the Fourth of July celebrations at Mingus Park the past few years.

It gives the Elks a chance to pitch the organization to young men and women.

Between the Internet and more two-income families, it seems fewer young people are interested in joining groups. But the group is getting better publicity and larger turnouts at events these days, Huffman pointed out.

That may help, as Kolkhorst admits the Elks and other fraternal groups face an uphill battle for younger members.