SALIDA — Lelani Yellowhair, who is a student at Cortez Middle School and the daughter of Lisa and Lance Manning, will head to the State Elks Hoop Shoot competition this Saturday, Feb. 24, in this central Colorado city.

She took home first place at the District Elks Hoop Shoot competition on Jan. 27. Yellowhair won in the Girls 10-11 age group. She is the lone area representative remaining in the annual competition.

Each contestant has 25 shots at the basket and the highest scorer (who makes the most) in each age category advances to the next level of competition. Should Lelani do well and win her age group at State she will advance to Regionals in Denver March 24. And if she wins there, she will earn a trip to the National Elks Hoop Shoot competition April 22-29 in Springfield, Mass.

Names of the national winners will be inscribed on the Elks National Hoop Shoot plaque on permanent display in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield.

The Elks National Free Throw Contest is the largest and most visible of the many youth activities sponsored by Elks Lodges (The Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks) throughout the country. The Elks Hoop Shoot has served to highlight the Elks National commitment to youth.

The Elks National Free Throw Contest was started with as a result of a local activity in Corvallis, Ore., in 1946. Years later out of that local program grew the national program, now in its 29th year. Each of the more then 2,200 lodges were encouraged to establish its own local contest involving boys from ages 8-13.

In the first year of 1971, boys from 19 states participated. Two years later, more than 750,000 boys from 42 states took part. In the following year (1974), girls were added to the competition. And the program has continued to grow ever since. Today, all 50 states and the District of Columbia hold competitions.