Lodge #1 Sioux Falls was chartered on September 12,1941 with 51 members. In the 1960's, the lodge purchased a one-room school house in East Sioux Falls to use as a club house.  In 1982 we erected the present building on the school house site. We now have 375 members - policemen, deputies, troopers, state agents, federal officers, and many retired officers. 

On 1/27/05 at a general membership meeting, the membership of both organizations voted on a motion to merge the Rapid City Peace Officer’s Association and the Fraternal Order of Police, Lodge 2.  We are pleased to announce the approval of this merger.  The renamed lodge is the Rapid City Peace Officer’s Association Fraternal Order of Police, Lodge #2, South Dakota, or Rapid City POA FOP Lodge #2, SD.  This name change was then approved by the South Dakota state lodge and then by the Grand Lodge.

Our lodge officers are:

·         President – Brent Nelson

·         Vice President – John Olson

·         Secretary – Spencer O’Bryan

·         Treasurer – Chris Hansen

The majority of our members are officers with the Rapid City Police Department.  Our department is unionized through the FOP and that is lodge 2A.  Rapid City Police Department employees are represented in a bargaining process for working conditions, contracts, legal defense, and a grievance process.  Members eligible to be with the union are officers with the rank of Sergeant and below.  All members are eligible for legal defense coverage.  We are currently in contract negations with the city as our current contact expires 12/31/05.

 The Rapid City Police Department, Pennington County Sheriff’s Office, and the Pennington County State’s Attorney are currently undergoing building expansion and remodeling at the Public Safety Building at 300 Kansas City St.  The Pennington County Jail, 603 2nd St., is also expanding next door.  We are looking forward to the completion of the multi-million dollar project. 

Rapid City is the largest city in western South Dakota and the second largest in the state.  We are on the eastern edge of the Black Hills National Forest and northwest of the Badlands National Park.  We are 25 miles from Sturgis, SD which host the annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in August.  In addition to the normal volume of summer tourist, several hundred thousand visitors from across the nation and the world come to the Black Hills area each year for the week of the rally.  We welcome you to come visit us as we know you will enjoy your stay in the beautiful Black Hills of South Dakota.

UPDATE JAN '06     It has been a good year for Lodge 2 with some minor exceptions.  We are in the second year of our joining up with the other fraternal police organization, the Rapid City Peace Officer’s Association.  We have some new people on the board which includes two people from the Pennington County Sheriff’s Office, so we are really excited about having even more participation from our local law enforcement agencies and growing our membership.  We have enjoyed several successful events as well as suffered some setbacks.  Two items come to mind on the negative side:  Our newly constructed Public Safety Building caught fire and set us several months back in the finishing of our construction.  We are still looking at a finish timeframe at the end of February/beginning of March.  That was very inconvenient and left us homeless for a few weeks.  However, that time has passed and now we are back in the full swing of things and construction is going well.  On a more personal side, our past FOP President Lieutenant Deb Cady was diagnosed with cancer.  She has gone through her treatments and operations and appears to be recovering nicely, no sign of cancer.  We are very thankful for that.

 We have three goals as a fraternal organization that we try and accomplish every year.  1)  Get our name out in the community and gain recognition and a little popularity for the FOP.  2)  Continue to financially support our charities and people in the community who need our help.  Many of the charities that we support are non-profit organizations that involve children.  We want to continue to help them as well as show the young people of our community what police officers are all about.  3)  Support our membership and people in the law enforcement family.  I will explain briefly how we attain these goals.

We believe our community benefits from seeing the fun side of law enforcement and maybe receive a little entertainment in the process.  This summer we hosted the Midstates Mud Bog Racing Association mud bog for the second year in a row.  The event was a lot of fun and people really appeared to enjoy themselves.  There were some great races as well as some thrilling crashes.  A good time was had by all.  For the third year in a row we held the Law Enforcement/Firefighters Extreme Rodeo in October.  Thanks in a great part to Officer Jim Ganser and Sergeant Sue Fox of the RCPD.  They did a lot of great work selling tickets and helping it become a reality.  The rodeo was two day event which included a rough stock rodeo (bronco and bull riding) and a country music concert.  We once again had the pleasure of having Dirks Bentley perform with the addition of Chris Cagle.  We competed against the Fire Fighters by having teams of two wrestle a steer.  It is always a lot of fun and gets a lot of laughs.  We do not make very much money but we get our name out there and let people associate us with very positive thoughts. 

We continue to support our local charities with at least several hundred dollars each.  Those groups include: Boys Club, Girls Club, Big Brothers, Big Sisters, CASA, Boy Scouts of America, and various other groups that may approach us.  This is very much appreciated by the kids of our community and we get to have a very positive influence on how these kids see law enforcement.  We have had a couple of tragedies that we have been able to help out with also.  Maria Allen who is the secretary for the law firm representing our lodge lost her home to a fire in the Rapid Valley area.  We were able to give her some money to help her and her kids (single mom) out with getting her back on track.  We assisted in helping the widow of school teacher.  Andrew Crocker was a schoolteacher who was killed in a hit and run accident by a drunk driver while he was out for his morning run.  Members of our organization got together and helped her finish the house her husband had been working on.  We are really proud of our members who pitched in to help this woman.  These are just a couple of the examples of what we have been able to accomplish.

Lastly, we try and support our membership by giving them something back from the lodge they so faithfully support.  We send flowers to members who have suffered loss or gained a new little life to their family.   We may give them a gift card to a restaurant for some deserving member to go out with his/her significant other.  We have hosted a summer fishing tournament every year and a winter ice fishing tournament.  We have various barbecues which we contribute to for our agencies.  We continue to have a Christmas party which normally has a couple of hundred people in attendance and we enjoy listening to a comedian and dancing to music provided by a DJ.  We have hosted many Super Bowl parties in the past and will continue to do so this year.  We also have our clubhouse.  The clubhouse is a special place for our members to use at their discretion.  It is used for social events including weddings, graduations, retirement parties, family reunions, baby showers, barbecues...etc.  The clubhouse is also used as a training facility for Law Enforcement Agencies in our area.  Agencies that have used the clubhouse are the Rapid City Police Department, Pennington County Sheriff’s Department, South Dakota Game, Fish, & Parks, South Dakota Highway Patrol, and the Rapid City Fire Department.  Police officers need a place to kick back and relax.  We have a wonderful facility and try to make the most of it.

The clubhouse’s windows were in need of repair and we were very fortunate to have Dan Warren of Warren Window and Supply donate these windows to the Lodge.  Dan donated these windows in memory of Supervisory Deputy United States Marshal Doug Ludovissie.  Doug passed away in 2004 from a long battle with cancer.  Doug served on the Board of Directors of the Association and was in charge of the clubhouse for over a dozen years.  We have missed Doug.

 In May of 2005, our lodge was blessed with the opportunity to accompany the Bechtold family to Washington D.C. for the Law Enforcement Officers Memorial.  Because of the gracious support given by the state lodge, we were able to provide for the family in a way that made the experience that much more meaningful.  This was truly an honor to represent the State of South Dakota as well as Law Enforcement in general, during this time.

These are just a few examples of what our lodge has participated in or accomplished in 2005.  We look forward to another great year.  Please send us any information about events that you may be hosting in the upcoming year and we will plan to do the same.  Until next time, we wish the best to all of our brothers and sisters in law enforcement.  God bless all of you in 2006!

Fraternally Yours, Lodge 2

Lodge #4 Aberdeen is made up of approximately 80 members from various agencies consisting of the Aberdeen Police Department, SD Game Fish and Parks, Federal Game and Fish, SD Highway Patrol, Brown County Sheriff's Office, FBI and the US Marshall's Office. We hold our monthly meetings at our lodge located on the south side of Aberdeen.

Lodge #4 holds a fund raising concert once a year in Aberdeen. Proceeds from our concert help fund lodge-sponsored events throughout the year such as:

• Aberdeen Parks and Rec. 3 on 3 Basketball Tournament

• Make-A-Wish

• Shop with a Cop

• Holiday food baskets

• Special Olympics Torch Run

• Youth sporting events

• GFP Water Festival

• Boy Scouts

• Post Prom activities

Lodge #4 is actively involved in community service in Brown County. This involvement allows officers to interact with the youth, and all of Brown County, in a positive setting.

For more information please e-mail brian.koens@brown.sd.us

UPDATE JAN '06      It was a busy year in 2005 for Lodge #4. We were active in sponsoring several programs again this year.

Camp Courage was held on two separate dates this past summer. Camp Courage is a program where approximately forty physically challenged children spend the day with local Law Enforcement Officers. This includes having a meal, riding in the Police and Sheriff's Office Humvee's, kickball, and of course the mother of all water fights! Don't come if you plan on staying dry!

On November 16th, the lodge granted a wish for six-year-old Rachel through the Make-A-Wish Foundation of South Dakota. Rachel lives in Aberdeen and has leukemia. Her wish included riding in a limo and spending the day fulfilling her wish of being a princess and going on a shopping spree. There were a lot of big smiles that day!

On November 21st, the lodge delivered twenty Thanksgiving baskets to underprivileged families in Brown County. Included in the baskets was a large turkey dinner with all of the trimmings.

On December 10th, "Shop with a Cop" was held at the Kmart store in Aberdeen. We had nineteen youngsters from Brown County in attendance. We ate breakfast and shortly after the kids got to meet Santa Claus. Each child in attendance received a gift from Santa. The kids then paired up with a Law Enforcement Officer and were able to shop for gifts for their families. As always, the day went very well.

On December 21st, the lodge delivered twenty-five Christmas baskets to underprivileged families in Brown County. The baskets included a large turkey dinner with all the trimmings. Each child in each family received several Christmas gifts that were donated from our Angel tree at the Kmart store in Aberdeen.

Lodge #4 has a scholarship program in place for members and their immediate families. This year there were five recipients that were awarded scholarships.

 - Terry Evans, Lodge #4 Vice President