Islander of the year: soft-hearted Moose Lodge leader

thumb image
Ernie Casali Jr.

You really couldn’t ask to meet a nicer guy. Or a more devoted member of the Loyal Order of the Moose. Or a softer, kinder, bigger-hearted man.

He is Ernie Casali Jr.

He has been the Moose Lodge administrator since 2003.

And since he took over, membership at the Bradenton Beach lodge has grown to more than 9,000 snowbirds, regulars and local members.

The lodge has grown from 1,700 to 5,600 members, while Women of the Moose grew five-fold, from 800 to 4,200.

Under his guidance — and fundraising acumen — a new state-of-art building was completed in 2015 on the beachfront.

He likes to say the building will withstand hurricane-force winds and waves will roll over it.

Casali says, “At the beach, we are always on borrowed time.”

His operation does more than $l million a year in food and beverage sales.

And it runs some successful fundraisers, including the wildly popular Queen of Hearts card contest. The lodge raised enough money to award some $30K a week in door prizes during the height of the 2016 contest, which in 10 months brought in about $400K.

And the contest has only run in three of the past six years, partly because the popularity overwhelms the staff and crowds the lodge, beachfront, parking lot and streets.

The queen contest accounts for some of the membership surge, since only members can buy tickets for the raffle drawings.

In December 2016, Casali decided to share the wealth, awarding $28,000 to outside charities, including $4,000 to Hope Family Services and a ministry providing aid in Haiti, as well as $1,000 each to a number of charities, including Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, Shriner’s Hospital in Tampa , Meals on Wheels, the Salvation Army, Moonracer No Kill Pet Rescue and many others.

Casali’s plans for the future include aiming for young family members, to bring a mix of young adults and kids to the lodge — no longer a place for mostly retired people.

And more improvements. Either a new roof or a new addition where the old building is attached to the new lodge. He also is mulling over putting a roof or canopy on the rooftop deck — where the sun limits comfort and service for food and cocktails.

Casali claims one of his greatest lifetime achievements is being admitted in 2016 to the fourth and highest degree of service to the Moose Legion, that of a Pilgrim. It is an honorary degree awarded to few Moose Legionnaires.

He humbly says of his accomplishments on Anna Maria Island, “I’m just the leader of the band.”

To which we say, play on.

Casali is on our hit parade.