Elks Lodge hosts benefit for Ocoee resident

An Ocoee resident in a time of need isn’t alone — and an upcoming event is about to prove that.

The Winter Garden Elks Lodge will be hosting a fundraising event Saturday, Nov. 2, benefiting Dana Hopkins — an Ocoee resident who fell from a hunting perch in December 2018 and suffered severe injuries. 

Attendees can expect a corn hole tournament, plates of food for sale and a raffle for prizes such as a TV, fishing trips, golf bags, cakes, gift baskets and gift cards.

It’s all meant to benefit a local friend and neighbor who has been recovering ever since the fall and faces massive medical costs, said Scott Moore, who lives on the same street as the Hopkins family and has helped organize the event.

“He’s one of the strongest people I’ve ever been associated with in my life,” Moore said. “The man is a working man. He had just retired and he worked every day — even when he wasn’t at work, he was still working at the house.”

According to a Caring Bridge page, Hopkins was about 20 to 25 feet in the air on a hunting perch when he fell. He sustained a broken sternum; all of his ribs broken; punctured, collapsed and bruised lungs; a broken heel bone; a broken tibia; a broken left radius; a fractured nose; fractured temporal bones; and a fractured vertebrae. 

Moore said Hopkins still was able to text someone nearby for help and also call 911.

Hopkins spent about six months at a hospital in Alabama before being sent to a hospital in Pine Castle and coming back home in July. He recently has gotten some of the use of his arms back, Moore said.

After a fishing tournament fundraiser in June, neighbors began to organize another event with the help of the Winter Garden Elks Lodge.

Member Pam DePriest said she has never met Hopkins, but that wasn’t important: It is time to help someone in need.

“One of the goals and missions of the Elks is to give back to our community — we’re there to give back to the community,” DePriest said. “For me personally, I’ve been very blessed in my life, and I think God has me on this earth to give back and help other people who aren’t as blessed. It really warms my heart to do this. It’s for good people. … It just makes you feel good giving back to other people.”

Moore said Hopkins always has been happy to help others in their time of need. He recalls several years ago, when a neighbor lost his job just after Thanksgiving — putting Christmas plans in jeopardy for the family.

“Dana took it upon himself to walk the street of the neighborhood and ask for donations so that we could give this family a proper Christmas,” Moore said. “That’s when I realized what kind of individual he was,” he said.