KOFC – Council 11091 Newsletter

From the Grand Knight’s Desk:

Brothers,

I got to meet with our new pastor and council Chaplain (pending Bishop Malloy’s approval of our requested change), Father Witold, concerning the parish and the Knights last week. He is looking forward to his role in the council and wants to a good job for the parish and the council. He is very busy getting acclimated to the new job. I asked Father to confirm with the diocese that we could
have our Christmas tree lot and sell trees and wreaths to the public. I don’t think that there is a problem with selling Christmas tress outside. I’m looking for approval since I don’t want to make any assumption considering the sizable investment that we have with the trees. I assumed that the tailgate events that we hosted earlier in the summer weren’t any problem, but then we found out in August that they were not acceptable according to the diocese. I don’t want to have all of the trees delivered only to be told that we can’t have such an event. It would go down as the biggest and most expensive bonfire in the history of Algonquin.

Our Christmas tree lot committee met this month and is putting together plans for a safe Christmas tree lot experience for our customers, similar to what all of the businesses and stores have had to do. They have lots of good ideas and are working on implementing all the safety measures. We will even have a QR code for our customers to scan or take a picture of to pay for their touchless
purchase.

Kevin and Julie Fitzgerald did a fantastic job putting on the Hammer Open in the middle of a pandemic. When the numbers weren’t looking good right before the outing, they hunkered down and got the golfers to sign up. At the end of the day, there were 60 golfers, tremendous weather, a fantastic dinner, and money raised for charities who need us more than ever before.

John Frazier led the council in collecting way more money during a pandemic than last year. We collected about 72% more than last year despite having new pandemic protocols, terrible Saturday morning weather, and being doublebooked with the Hammer Open on the Sunday. That’s not even it. We are going to have a collection at the church one weekend after each mass to pile on to our total. Great job John!

Steve Wilson, the self-proclaimed Trash Man, gathered a group of masked Catholic gentlemen and cleaned up Algonquin Road one Saturday this month. They do the dirty work for the council and we all appreciate it.

Our sports mania chairman, Kevin Wright, managed to squeak out a good profit from the sales of our 2020 Football Mania tickets. Thanks go out to everyone who bought or sold tickets.

Our council has 2 more Deacons! Chris Nocchi and Tim Pignatari (our council’s Charter Treasurer) were both ordained on Saturday, September 26th. Please join me in congratulating them on this wonderful step in the journey of their faith and welcoming them to their new important role in the parish. I understand both of them will serve in their first masses as Deacons the weekend of October 3rd/4th.

October is usually a quieter month for us, but we do have things to do:

• The Life Chain is going to be held on Sunday, October 4th from 2:30-3:30. The 2 locations nearby are on Highway 14 next to the Hobby Lobby parking lot and at St. Catherine of Sienna on Highway 72 near Highway 31.
• We have a degree on Saturday, October 10th at 4:00 at McDonnell Hall. This is the new ceremony and open to new Knights as well as First Degree Knights who want to progress in the order to the Third Degree.
• We checked again with the parish office on hosting blood drives and the diocese confirmed for us that we could do them again, so we back in the blood collection business. The next blood drive will be on Sunday, October 18th.
• We hope to clean up some more at McGivney this month. The date and time are TBD.

Lastly, in my meeting with Father Witold, we also talked about replacing the doors on the church. They’ve needed to be replaced for a few years now. They are costing us money every day in escaping heated or cooled air and some of them present a security risk for the church because of the size of the gaps present. The diocese has currently put a hold on all capital expenditures for all parishes until June 2021. However, Father is going to check with them whether our parish can do the doors if they have a donation from the Knights and would hold a drive for the parishioners to donate the rest to this cause. I’m proposing a donation of half of the amount up to $20k for this. I’ll publish this proposal in the November newsletter as well and will entertain a motion in the November meeting for a vote on this. We can discuss this in the October meeting to see how out the council feels about this and whether we need any further information before the vote in November.

Vivat Jesus!

Dave Frendreiss
GK Council 11091