KOFC – Council 11091 Newsletter

Brothers,

“We live a world that has walls, and those walls have to be guarded by men with guns,” said Colonel Jessup in the movie “A Few Good Men”. While this is a fictional movie, there is nothing fictional about the need for a strong military and for a nation to be thankful for the men and women who do this service. Our military is comprised of a volunteer force. On Memorial Day in May, we remember those who have died for this country. On November 11th, we recognize all our veterans and, I like to think, our currently serving Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, and Marines. We can also honor our military families because of their unseen sacrifices with their loved ones fighting in battle.

We have many veterans in our council as well as a few Knights who are currently serving in the military – Kevin Alher, Sean Burns, and Troy Minaglia. We also have sons of some of our Knights serving right now as well. I would like you to think of them all this month and be grateful that we have volunteers for this service.

The Christmas Tree Lot is always are biggest and longest event of the year. It takes on even most importance this year with the absence of some of our other major fundraisers. Bishop Malloy has provided all the Knights councils in the diocese with his blessing to proceed with Christmas tree sales while abiding by the latest Covid-19 guidelines. Rene Mendez and his committee has been hard at work developing a plan for making the Christmas tree lot experience a safe one for both the customer and our brother Knights. They will be holding another committee meeting in early November, have a Pre-Staging night ahead of the lot setup where the materials will be staged and fixed as needed, Setup day on Saturday, November 21st, and the lot opens for business on Friday, November 27th. We look forward to a safe and successful Christmas tree lot event and ask for your help in making it that.

In the October general meeting, I proposed that we donate up to $20k for the cost of replacing the doors on the church and we had an official motion for this then. They are badly in need of replacement for a few years now. They cost us all year long leaking heated or cooled air depending on the season. They also propose a security risk for the church due to the gaps present and what a pry bar could do with them. While the diocese has currently put a hold on all capital expenditures for all parishes until June 2021, the plan is to have Father go to the parishioners with the promise of our $20k matching donation and ask them for the rest. If he can raise the rest of the money needed, he would go to the diocese then and ask that we proceed with the project given that the money for the project has all been donated and is on hand. If they OK this immediately, then we’d cut the check at that point. They may still push us off until June 2021 or beyond so our $20k may be delayed until the diocese approves the plan. The parish did get multiple quotes for the job at the time they had this quoted but would have the quotes refreshed prior to starting the job. We are also confirming that the job includes bringing them up to ADA requirements, as this would be required.

We have had some musical chairs going on this as month as some Knights have decided to take on some new roles for some of our other Knights have stepped down after years as the chair for certain events. We filled the following positions this month:

Faith Director – Deacon Pat
Newsletter – Bill Hice
ID Drive – Paul Evans
Manpower events – John Schneider
Blood Drive – Marv Basch
Alt. Fundraising – Greg Haluczak

I am still looking for new chairmen for Council videographer. The other roles filled up fast, if you are thinking about stepping up, let me know and I can help you with more information about these roles.

In this past month, we had our first and successful “during the pandemic” Blood Drive thanks to Shepard and his crew, we sold more magnets, we cleaned up McGivney, and the Deceased Brothers ceremony was held on Sunday, November 1st right around the release of the newsletter.

Also, we hosted a degree ceremony this past month and we’ll be hosting our “Knight before Christmas” degree ceremony on Sunday, December 13th where new Knights can be initiated into the order and where 1st degree Knights can progress in the order to be 3rd degree Knights. We need candidates for both options of the degree, so you’ll be hearing more about this soon. A virtual 4th degree exemplification will be held this Saturday, November 7th. Mark Halper is working on doing hosting this event at McDonnell Hall to make it even more special for those going to the
4th degree along with other brother Knights instead of taking it online and alone at home.

I talked in last month’s meeting how the Grand Knight’s job is made much easier by the incredible efforts of all of the Knights and how many of you are thinking all of the time about how to keep up our great works. PGK Chris Hubbuch stepped up and offered up an idea for a new carryout food event in accordance with our Bishop Malloy’s most recent update to the Covid-19 guidelines. We got a blessing from Father Witold to pursue this and Chris is off running with this idea and hoping to have it this month.

Please keep doing all of the good things that you do!

Vivat Jesus!

Dave Frendreiss
GK Council 11091