Phyllis Caldwell is loving life more

By Ethan Nahté

Phyllis Caldwell’s name is one that’s familiar to much of the community. She’s the office manager at Hampton Aviation going on 16-plus years, treasurer for the Polk County Fair and Rodeo Association, and was one of The Pulse’s Women in Business honorees in 2022.

In addition, she is secretary for the Mena Elks Lodge No. 781 and the past exalted ruler (E.R.) in 2015, 2016 and 2018. The E.R. is the president and executive officer of the lodge. Caldwell’s the only woman who has been E.R. for Mena. She is also the state’s Elk National Foundation chairperson and was running for Arkansas State Elks Second Vice President this past weekend. She won the election and will be installed at their spring convention in May 2024.

Despite her accomplishments with the Elks, she reveals her sharing spirit by taking time to comment on fellow Elks member Cindy Charpentier during the interview.

“Cindy won an award for our local lodge two years ago on Elks National Foundation. She got a perfect score on everything that could possibly be done for Elks National Foundation for one year. She is the only woman in the United States who has done it so far.”

Caldwell’s work with the Elks is purely for what the organization does for the community.

“We’re everywhere — youth, elderly, veterans. We support fire departments, police stations. We’re a patriotic group. We’re American. Red, white and blue doesn’t mean we all exactly believe the same thing and doesn’t mean we’re all the same, but we have a common goal to make our community better. That’s what I love about the Elks. It doesn’t matter what the problem is, we will help