Monsignor James S. Conlan Council #5329 – September 2019 Activities Summary
Charitable and Benevolent (C&B) Raffle Books – The Hudson Valley Knights of Columbus Chapter annually raises money for the Chapter’s Charitable and Benevolent Program. Councils in the Chapter sell C&B raffle books to donors to support various initiatives throughout the year. Part of the money goes to the local Council selling the book and another portion goes to this Chapter effort. Our Council is currently selling raffle books for this program. Raffle winners will be eligible for cash prizes. This is another way for us to raise funds for our Council’s charity efforts, as well as, support other charitable initiatives throughout our Chapter (plus if you win you get a nice cash prize). If you’re interested in purchasing a book or would like more details you can contact us here for more info.
Annual Knights Memorial Mass – The Annual Hudson Valley Chapter Memorial Mass will be held on Saturday, November 9th; 2019. The mass is at 6:30pm and dinner will be served at 7:30pm for all Brother Knights and their families. The mass is open to all who wish to attend. This event is hosted by our Brothers in the Blessed Titus Brandsma Council #16519. The mass will be celebrated at the National Shrine of Our Lady of Mount Caramel (70 Carmelite Drive; Middletown, New York 10940). Among the remembered Brothers in our Councils throughout the Hudson Valley Chapter to be remembered at the mass is deceased Council member Brother Knight William Grimm who passed away earlier this year.
Monsignor James S. Conlan Council #5329 – Looking Ahead
Knights Consecration to the Holy Family Program – Our Council will be sponsoring a mass dedicated to Consecration to the Holy Family to be hosted at the Church of the Infant Saviour in Pine Bush, NY. Our Council invites all the families in our Parish Community to join us as we consecrate ourselves to the Holy Family and pledge to devote ourselves to the ideal model of familial love set by Jesus, Mary and Joseph. This program is part of the Knights of Columbus’ Faith In Action initiative. The Hudson Valley Knights of Columbus Chapter will be lending our Council the HV region’s Blessed Holy Mother Mary icon for veneration during and after mass. Participants will receive mass cards at no cost. Tentatively we are looking to schedule this mass for November 16, 2019 (Saturday) at Infant Saviour’s 5pm mass. Stay tuned for details as we finalize the event and we hope to see you there.
New Council Tee Shirts – Last year we refreshed our formal Council polo design to reflect our then newly adopted name as the Knights of Columbus Monsignor James S. Conlan Council #5329. We are now in the process of selecting a new design for our Council tee shirts. The polo shirts are worn by Brother Knights during more formal events like Chapter Meetings, Degree Ceremonies, and Mass. The tee shirt is worn by Brother Knights during our charity events and where ever we are performing more manual labor orientated tasks. Stay tuned for information as we finalize details about the design in the next month or so. At that time all Brother Knights will be able to order new tee shirts from the Council both in person and through our web site.
Children’s Bible Giveaway Program – Our Council has selected an edition of a Catholic children’s Bible that has colorful pictures and age appropriate wording in it for First and Second grade age school children from St. Michael’s Media. We have ordered the Bibles and are waiting for them to arrive. A children’s Bible translates the Bible into simple English language that is readable by young children. Children’s Bibles are a wonderful way to introduce young children to our Faith. We plan on getting enough copies of the Bibles to supply the entire First and Second grade Religious Education program students with a copy of the Bible. We are really excited about this program and know it will enrich the lives of our Parish’s children. Once the Bibles arrive we will be giving them out to the Religious Education program for distribution to the children by their Catechist.
Christmas Food Gift Card Donation – Last month our Council was given a $25 gift card through the Knights of Columbus Hudson Valley Chapter. The gift card donation came from St. Martin de Porres RC Church in Poughkeepsie, NY. St. Martin’s keeps a donation bin in their Church that lets Parishioners donate to the Knights of Columbus HV Chapter Councils. The HV Chapter then equally divides up the donations received for a given year from the Parish and distributes those equally divided donations to all the local Councils within the Chapter in the form of gift cards. In December, as part of our Annual Works of Mercy for the Poor in Need During Christmas, we will be giving the card to a family/person in need within our Parish Community. Thank you to the Parishioners of St. Martin De Porres and to the Hudson Valley Chapter for giving us this gift card– we know the person/family who will receive this gift will see it as a blessing!
Jerry’s Jars – Each year our Council collects spare change throughout the year and in December collects it into a single jar. “Jerry’s Jars” is named after our past Financial Secretary Jerry Wieczorek who instituted the practice of our members saving change all year to add together at Christmas time so we can give it to a family in need. It is in the spirit of the best selling book, “Christmas Jars” by Jason Wright. Sadly, Jerry passed away only a couple of years after this was started and it is great that we can keep his ministry alive. Once again this year our Council will donate the money to a person or family in need within our Parish area. Nominations come from many different resources and are done so anonymously. Only a few Brother Knights that are vowed to secrecy know who we donate the money to and we never actually talk with the person who gets the donation so they do not even know where the money came from. It just appears on their doorstep on a randomly decided morning. This donation is part of our Annual Works of Mercy for the Poor in Need During Christmas and is yet another way our Council helps the local Catholic community through charitable giving, as well as, volunteer work. Over the years we have given away hundreds of dollars (and really probably over a thousand dollars– we don’t really keep count) to people in need through this program. This year the event is especially meaningful as just a few months ago, Jerry’s son Brian Wieczorek has transferred back to our Council. In speaking with Brian, he is particularly touched to learn we continue his father’s legacy of giving back to the community and continue this event annually.
Catholic ID Cards – Our Council has been looking into lamented cards identifying you as Catholic and explaining what to do if unable to communicate that you are a Catholic during a medical emergency event such as heart attack or car accident. The cards would be given out to all in Parish interested in them at no charge. Stay tuned for details as we firm up details about the card and when it will be available to the Parish community.
New Council Hall – Thanks to the generous donations of many parishioners at the Church of the Infant Saviour, our Church has raised the funds needed to rehabilitate the former preschool building that our Council currently uses as our Council Hall into a rectory for Parish Priests. Father Rodrigo is working with several of our Parishioners and hired professionals to begin the process of receiving approvals needed from the Town of Crawford to begin work. As a result, our Council will be moving our Council Hall in the coming months to the Church Hall. As part of that move, we will be donating time and material to rehabilitate the Church’s kitchen including installing a new commercial grade sink. This is a win-win for all involved: Our Church will get a proper rectory to house our Pastor, associate Pastors and visiting Priests for many years to come. Our Church will also get an updated kitchen for use by Parish community. Our Council will get a new space to hold its monthly meetings at. Stay tuned for an announcement of when we will formally begin meeting in the Council Hall (ETA is around November 2019). For now though, we are continuing to meet in the preschool building until that notice is issued.
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