The Knightly News – Council 11091
From the Grand Knight’s Desk
My Worthy Brother Knights!
As many of you know, I have been a bit “out of the loop” these last couple of months due to my work schedule. I am very blessed to have bother knights to cover for me, namely Scott Nejman who has run the last two meetings and fully took charge of the Anniversary Dinner, Bob Armstrong who wrote two wonderful and spiritual newsletter articles, and Dan Limbach who has always been available for advice and help.
Anniversary Dinner
In early April, we celebrated our 23rd anniversary as a council with a dinner and awards presentation. Scott was a great master of Ceremonies and he and Ann made it a very welcoming and fun event. We had many dignitaries in attendance, including members of St Margaret Mary clergy, Father Peter, Father Andre, and Deacon Pat. We also had many current and past state, diocesan, and district officers. They included current state warden Gary Daily, three past state deputies, Rich Spada, Phil Barone, and Ron Ziemba, current master of the Fourth Degree, Jack McCarthy, current Faithful Navigator of the Bishop O’Neil Assembly, Bill Wenzloff, Rockford diocesan chairman Paul Balsitis, Rockford Diocese VP Jeff Metters, our District Deputy Greg Schuring, and KOC Academy faculty and past District Deputy, Mark Halper. One of the most significant to our council was past state deputy Ron Ziemba who was the state deputy, and was directly involved, when our council was formed. He gave his recollections of the founding of the council and congratulated us on the accomplishments we have had since that time. Tom McCabe, our charter grand knight also gave his recollections of those events.
I had a great time presenting awards to some of our best and brightest for the last year. We awarded Rookie of the Year to Michael Kouvelis, a very new knight who seems to have been at every event since his first degree. Senior of the year went to John Barrett, who chairs our Feed My Starving Children program, teaches RE and is active in CHRP. Family of the year was presented to Kevin Wright and family for their involvement and presence at any and all family events. Chris Hubbuch was awarded Knight of the Year. Chris not only attends nearly every event we have, he takes an active role in the leadership and management of most of them. We also made a very special Lifetime Achievement Award presentation to Sir Knight Aldo Simonini. Aldo is a charter member of our Council and lifetime member of the parish. He has probably been to more fish fries, founders’ days and breakfasts than anyone else. Aldo epitomizes the theme for the evening, “Celebrating Serving Others”.
State Convention
Coming up as of this writing Scott and I will be attending the Illinois State Knights of Columbus convention in Springfield the weekend of April 29 – May 1. (See last minute picture of us later in this issue) It is an opportunity talk to state officers (and of course listen to them talk) and hear about programs run by other councils around the state and the wonderful work that the Knights do. I hope to relate to you this and other good news of our order at the May meeting.
Also coming up in May is a blood drive on the 22nd, in McDonnell Hall starting at 7 am.
I look forward to seeing everyone at the next meeting, Thursday May 5thth at 7:30. This meeting will have a social event following with board games, card games and baggo. We will do all that we can to keep the meeting short, so please came for the business meeting but plan to stay for some fellowship.
Vivat Jesus!
Dan Perna, Grand Knight