The Royal Purple’s Supreme Honoured Royal Lady (or president), Marg Brown, was in Stettler on Monday to visit the lodge and update the Royal Purple in town on what is happening with the umbrella organization.
“Oh, it’s exciting,” said Joan Hennel, a member of the Royal Purple.
The Royal Purple is an auxiliary of the Elks, and is an organization specifically for women.
The group has almost 200 lodges and about 5000 members across Canada. As Supreme Honoured Royal Lady, Brown has visited 20 of those lodges since she took the position in July. And she had a good time in Stettler.
“It’s been excellent,” she said Monday. “The hospitality is great.”
Although she admits that the position as president of the Royal Purple is a time commitment, she is enjoying it nonetheless especially meeting with the different members of the Royal Purple, which she describes as a “joy.”
“You have to set aside that year for the Royal Purple, and I haven’t regretted a minute of it,” she said.
Brown started out with the Royal Purple 38 years ago in Lloydminster, because she thought it was a good organization to belong to.
“I think for a lot of things, if they didn’t have the Royal Purple to help them out financially on some of these projects that they do, then they probably wouldn’t get done or would take longer.” Brown said.
“I know the Royal Purple and the Elks are very obliging and hard-working to support things.”
Brown spent seven years as a member of the provincial executive team of the Alberta Royal Purple Lodges Association before becoming Supreme Honoured Royal Lady.
“As a Supreme, I can still be ousted,” she said. “But they feel that after seven years … working in the national executive and so forth, that you try your best.”
Her primary duties are to keep things organized and make sure that the organization is running smoothly, along with visiting lodges across Canada.
Last year, the Royal Purple president was from Iqaluit, and visited the two lodges in the Maritimes.
Brown visited the lodge in Big Valley on Tuesday, and then headed back to Lloydminster.