The Knight's Shield - August 2021

 I hope this finds you all well, happy, and dry. That was quite a July with all the rain! 

We did the tree trimming on July 10th at the parish. I want to thank the following knights for their efforts: Ken Krause, Hank Leflere, Mike Hartel, Ron Marrese, Phil Kwasny, George Schulte, Ray Coughlin, Steve Kargenian, Vince Ursini, and Rob Amsler. I apologize if I missed anyone who came later. There were also two parishioners Maria Fazzalari, and Bill Lawson who helped out. It looks wonderful! 

Before our July general membership meeting, we had two new Knights go through the exemplification. Paul Kopacki and Ken Savage, welcome to our council Brother Knights! 

 

We held our ice cream social again the weekend of July 16th. I received good feedback that it was a success. We also had in attendance our Worthy State Deputy to present our 25th anniversary plaque to our Worthy Deputy Grand Knight Phil Mularski. 

 

August 18 is a fraternal benefits night with speaker Joe Jordan talking about stress free retirement planning. The article is attached with this newsletter. Please let me know if you attend this event so I can do the appropriate paperwork. If you take the survey at the end of the seminar it will count toward us getting our requirement for Star Council. From my family to yours, we wish you a happy rest of the summer! 

 

Vivat Jesus! 

Tom Gray

ICE CREAM SOCIAL 2021

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The Knight's Shield - July 2021

As we are easing into Summer with restrictions being lifted, I hope this finds you all well and happy.

The MI Drive funds were received from the State and dispersed to our selected charities. Thank you to all those who volunteered to deliver them.

At our last general meeting, we celebrated the 25th anniversary of the council! Our Worthy State Advocate, Charles McCuen, represented the State Council. We presented Knight of the Year award to Angelo Garavaglia. Family of the year was awarded to the Ken and Peggy Dudley family. We had four lifetime achievement awards: George Loewen, Hank Leflere, Ken Grobbel, and Ted Czarny. There was special men- tion of our charter Worthy Treasurer, Ray Coughlin, for his years of loyal service and dedication to this council. Thank you Ray for all you do!

We bid adieu to our outgoing Worthy District Deputy Ernie Boulis and welcomed our new one Dan Nowakowski. Ernie served District 1/101 for 6 years. We only had him for a couple of years, but his solid leadership was greatly appreciated. Thank you for your loyal service Ernie! Also thank you Dan for your willingness to step into this leadership role, we are looking forward to working with you.

You will note on the calendar that we are going to have an exemplification before our July general membership meeting. We are also going to resume meals before the meetings. So the exemplification will begin at 6. If you are not a 3rd degree member please consider attending this very nice ceremony. Also feel free to attend if you are and would just like to see it. Just let us know so we can plan for the number of attendees.

The weekend of July 16th is the ice cream social. We will set up the tent Friday afternoon and serve ice cream after all the masses. Please consider working this event, it will be very welcome to see some more of the parishioners and talk after such a long time.

We are going to do a baby bottle drive after the summer, so stay tuned as we iron out the details. We, along with help from the church, decided to post pone our membership drive till after the summer as well. Looking to do the baby bottle drive in conjunction with the membership drive.

From my family to yours, we wish you a happy Independence Day!

Vivat Jesus! Tom Gray

 

 

CELEBRATING 25 YEARS SPOT KNIGHTS #11689

 

The Knight's Shield - June 2021

Summer is almost upon us, and with the pandemic easing up a little, I am looking forward to visiting with family and friends more...including my brother knights. I hope all of you and yours are doing well.

Our officers for the 2021-22 fraternal year were elected at our May general meeting, they are as follows:

• Grand Knight:               Tom Gray
• Deputy Grand Knight:   Phil Mularski
• Chancellor:                    Kevin Kennedy
• Warden:                         Tony Quido
• Advocate:                      Ken Krause
• Recorder:                       Rob Tusset
• Inside Guard:                 Joe Kish
• Outside Guard:              Vince Ursini
• 3 Year Trustee:               Paul Parker
• Treasurer:                       Ray Coughlin

Thanks to all the brother knights who accepted these officer positions!

The road cleanup was 4/24. We had about 10 men help out with this event. It took about an hour and a

half, the garbage was pretty heavy this year.

I have delivered our donation to the church from the fish fry proceeds.

 

The MI Drive funds are turned into the State, and we are awaiting the checks to disperse to our selected

charities.

The state convention at Mackinaw is virtual again this year. I mentioned at the general meeting and there

was some interest that they are opening up the meeting to outside people to attend. There will be a

different login for the delegates as we have some voting to do, but anyone can login and view the activities. Friday May 28th start time is 6pm, it opens with mass. The start time Saturday starts at 9am with a Rosary. The links are below if you wish to view this event.

Friday:

    YouTube: https://youtu.be/w7uzUfmz5xc

    Facebook: https://fb.me/e/1xX2YJxAl

    Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86352999023

Saturday:

    YouTube: https://youtu.be/5 lyoP8Hly4

    Facebook: https://fb.me/e/dcFxxir3W

    Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86479546420

Our next general meeting we will be celebrating the 25th anniversary of our council! There will be a representative from the State Council to present a plaque from Supreme. Please try to make this event

as we will recognize the charter members and the Past Grand Knights.

We are going to possibly do a baby bottle drive soon, so stay tuned as we iron out the details. From my family to yours, we wish you a happy June!

Vivat Jesus!

Tom Gray

DID YOU KNOW

In the beginning God created the night and the day and with in it He provided 24 hours with two great lights to separate the night and the day. All of God’s people have 24 hours each day to accomplish their goals. That gives each of us 8,760 hours a year to live out God’s plan. That gives everyone 2,920 hours of sleep each year if they sleep 8 hours a day. Working 40 hours a week uses another 2,080 hours for the year. That leaves 3,760 hours for personal time whatever that may be. Can you please spend 5,10,15,20 or 24 hours a year making a difference by supporting the Knights of Columbus programs? That’s all it takes 24 hours or less out of 8,760 hours each year. Be the difference. Your time is the most valuable gift you can give. Please consider joining our council today. You are so much needed.

The Knight's Shield - May 2021

Spring is here! I for one am glad to have the warmer weather and to see nature waking up from winter.

I hope this finds you and your families happy and healthy.

We had our first round of nominations for officer elections at last month’s meeting. The nominations are posted later in this newsletter. If you will not be attending the next meeting, I will be glad to accept nominations via email or phone call. There will be one more round of nominations...then elections will be held at the next meeting. Also, please remember that it is acceptable and encouraged to self-nominate if you would like to be involved in helping to run your council.

There is an online seminar by Tom Henga about retirement called "Paychecks and Playchecks" coming up. He is an author and very good presenter. I really enjoyed his last one. The flyer is attached to this newsletter. Please consider attending this as the council will get credit toward the Star Award if we get enough participation. Please let me know if you are going to attend so I can follow up and ensure that we get the credit that is due us. See the attached flyer for more information.

The road cleanup is coming up 4/24. We will meet in the North parking lot at 8am.

I just received word that the convention at Mackinaw is cancelled and will be virtual again this year.

This month. we recognize Memorial Day, (note I intentionally say recognize instead of celebrate). This is the holiday where we remember those who gave their lives in service brate, lets just make sure that we do remember and give thanks to God for the soldiers who made the greatest sacrifice for our freedom. As Franklin D. Roosevelt once said, "Those who have long enjoyed such privileges as we enjoy forget in time that men have died to win them."

From my family to yours, we wish you a happy spring. As things ease up with vaccines getting in arms, I hope to see each and everyone of you soon!

Vivat Jesus!
Tom Gray

Mobile Assistive Technology Training - Resources for Blind and Low-Vision

TECH JV

The Knight's Shield - April 2021

Hallelujah! Christ is Risen! Happy Easter all!

I hope this finds you and your families happy and healthy.

We had our March meeting in person as a hybrid meeting. We had almost 50 men in person and a dozen on the Zoom portion. We also had an exemplification before the meeting. We had two new members and two 1st degree knights make 3rd degree. Thank you all who helped with the exemplification. I had many compliments on how well it went. I would like to welcome our two new knights Michael McKinnon and Jake Lueck.

We are through with a crazy couple of weeks. We had the fish fries throughout all of Lent. We had the Ham and Kielbasa sales. We had the Easter Egg hunt. Finally we had the MI Drive. I don't have final numbers for these events at the writing of this newsletter so stay tuned for results either in the next newsletter or at the next meeting. Without the dedication and hard work of knights and their families we would not be successful. So from the bottom of my heart I would like to thank each every one of you! I cannot list you all by name but you know who you are…

There is an online seminar by Tom Henga about retirement called "Paycheck and Playchecks" coming up. He is an author and very good presenter. I really enjoyed his last one. The flyer is attached to this newsletter. Please consider attending this as the council will get credit toward the Star Award if we get enough participation. Please let me know if you are going to attend so I can follow up and ensure that we get the credit that is due us. See the attached flyer for more information.

The road cleanup is coming up 4/24. We will meet in the North parking lot at 8am. See the attached article for more information.

From my family to yours, we wish you a blessed Easter. As things ease up with vaccines getting in arms, I hope to see each and everyone of you soon!

Vivat Jesus!
Tom Gray

The Knight's Shield - March 2021

I hope this finds you and your families all well.

We are into the Lenten season now, a time to reflect, sacrifice, and get closer to God. Please consider volunteering at one of our many upcoming events such as fish fries, MI Drive, Ham and Kielbasa sales, or Easter Egg hunt.

We had our February meeting online as a Zoom meeting due to the restrictions. We had around 30 participants and were able to complete all required business with no issues. I am looking forward to meeting in person again. I have reviewed the guidelines and think that we can meet in person at our next meeting on March 11th. I have submitted my plan to the church and am awaiting their response at the time this is being written. I will send an update as to what the plan will be. I am hoping to have a hybrid meeting with both Zoom and in person to accommodate everyone's comfort level. We will possibly be having an exemplification before the meeting at 6:30. We currently have one, maybe two new members attending. We also have one 1st degree member to attend for 3rd degree. If anyone is not a 3rd degree member and would like to attend, please let me know so we can be prepared.

We have completed our 1st day of fish fries at the writing of this newsletter, and it went pretty well considering it being two years since we have had one. It was a great turnout, and we sold out by 5:15. We did get into a groove after a slow start. We have a couple of things to tweak to be more efficient. We don't think that we can get much more food out of the kitchen but we are going to try to add some meals for next week. Please consider helping out with this, our biggest fund raiser of the year.

From my family to yours, we wish you a blessed Lent. Let us hope and pray that 2021 brings an end to this pandemic and our lives can return to normal.

Vivat Jesus!
Tom Gray