Monsignor James S. Conlan Council #5329 – November 2020-March 2021 Activities Summary
The Monsignor James S. Conlan Council #5329 has been busy this past winter and we would like to catch you up on what we have been up.
December 2020
St. Mary’s Outreach Donation – In December 2020, our Council donated $300 to the St. Mary’s Outreach program. This charity is a a local food pantry that serves those in need of food, clothing, and home goods through its Outreach program located in the former St. Mary’s Catholic School building in Newburgh, New York. We have worked with and donated to this charity in the past. They serve residents from many of the surrounding communities including some who are located within Pine Bush, New York.
Charitable & Benevolent Raffle Books Fundraiser – Also in December 2020, we completed a small amount of C&B Books Raffle fundraising sales and closed out the fundraiser for the year that we began back in September 2020. Each raffle donation supports Catholic schools and vocations donations throughout New York State. A portion of the sale is also donated back to the local Council. This C&B raffle is held annually through the New York State Knights of Columbus. The drawing for this event was held in Verona, New York by the New York State Knights in December 2020 and we unfortunately had no winners drawn from our ticket sales. We thank everyone who participated in selling and purchasing the raffle tickets as though this contributed a small amount of money to our Council for the year, we appreciate every dollar donated and make sure it goes to good works in our community regardless of how big or small the donation may be.
Christmas Meals For Needy Families – Each year our Council buys everything needed for a complete Christmas dinner and gives those dinners to families in need within our Parish area. Last year we fed over 30 families and we were planning on doing so again in December 2020. This meal donation program is part of our Annual Charitable Giving plan and is yet another way our Council helps the local Catholic community through charitable giving, as well as, volunteer work. Unfortunately due to issues in raising the funds needed for the program in a timely manner through our 50/50 Raffle fundraiser we were not able to hold the program this year. There were also issues because of the COVID-19 pandemic in the organizations we work with to distribute the food that would have posed challenges to delivering the meals as well as issues finding space to store the food. We further had issues because the supplier that normally provides us with the dry goods portion of the meal did not run their program this year due to the pandemic. This created as “perfect storm” of issues and challenges that despite our best efforts we could not overcome. It is unfortunate, but we will resume this program in December 2021 in hopes that things will have by that point returned to a more normal state of operation allowing us to resume this important work of mercy and charity for those in need. Our hope is the donation to St. Mary’s will in lieu of this program help to feed some of those who might have been normally fed by this one.
Coats For Kids Program – As previously reported on this website in its own article; on December 15, 2020 our Council made a donation of twelve brand new extreme cold winter youth coats to the Catholic Charities of Orange, Sullivan, & Ulster Counties located in Goshen, New York. Resource Exchange Coordinator Mike Peters accepted the donation delivery from Financial Secretary Chris Welch and just minutes later they were packed to head out to families in need throughout the Tri-County Area. You can read more about that donation here.
January 2021
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. This year the jar of money was given to a local women who is a single mother with three children who has both work and health challenges to deal with. As always, we did not count the donated amount though due to COVID-19 limiting our in person attendance during meetings the amount was lower than in years past. Regardless, we thank all our Brother Knights who so generously donated to this annual work of mercy and charity. We know that no matter the amount, the money was needed by her and we are sure she is grateful for every cent she received through your kindness and charity.
Deacon Jack Carr Assigned to New Parish – Longtime Knight of Columbus and Council member Deacon John “Jack” Carr was reassigned in December 2020 to a new Parish by the Archdiocese of New York. Official word of this reassignment was given by the Archdiocese to our Parish in January 2021. With that new assignment he also was transferred to a new Council who serves that parish in Kingston, New York (St. Mary’s in Kingston, NY). We are sad to see Deacon Jack (as he’s affectionally known in the Church of the Infant Saviour parish community) go to a new parish community, but we know that he will both continue to faithfully serve that new community in his role as a Deacon, as well as, be a valuable asset of faith and service to his new Parish of St. Mary’s. Our Council wishes Deacon Jack all the best in his new parish community and we ask you to keep him in your prayers as he begins his new leg of his ministerial work with both that new church and his new Knights Council. Deacon Jack served our Council as a Council Officer in the past in the leadership role of Chaplain and most recently as our Lecturer. We thank him for his service in both these roles, as well as, his many years of service to Infant Saviour.
February 2021
2021 Annual College Scholarship Essay Contest Planning Begins – Our Council annually offers a $500 scholarship for a graduating senior who lives in the Pine Bush School District and is an active member of in the Catholic Church. Participants must write an essay on a topic selected by the members of our Council. A winner is selected by our Essay Committee through blind reviews and voting. The final essay selected is named the winner for the year and receives the $500 scholarship for us in their educational pursuits in college or vocational/technical training. Once again this year our Council will be holding this Scholarship Essay Contest. In February we began the collection of ideas for this year’s essay theme.
March 2021
50/50 Raffle Winner Drawn – Our Council normally runs an Annual Super Bowl Raffle, but with everything going on politically with this event we decided it was best to instead hold a more neutral fundraiser this year. We started collecting for donations towards $50 raffle chances in November 2020. The fundraiser was not as popular as our past Super Bowl fundraiser and took longer than anticipated to sell all one hundred chances. Things were further complicated by the pandemic in collecting the money as our monthly meeting attendance has been down and past supporters were not in constant physical contact with our Brother Knights. This further delayed getting funds collected for the raffle. We did manage though to finally sell and collect the donated money for each box by our March 2021 Monthly Council Meeting. With that, a drawing was held and winner was selected for the $2,500 single prize on March 11, 2021. We were blown away when that winner (Brother Knight Owen McKane) generously donated all the winnings back to the Council! This means that all $5,000 collected could go to good works of mercy and charity– a crucial thing as our bank accounts were nearly empty at this point! God is great! Thank you Brother Owen for your charity and kindness, as well as, to all who donated to this fundraiser!
Monsignor James S. Conlan Council #5329 – Looking Ahead
Knights Religious Vocations Formation Support Program – The Knights of Columbus Supreme sponsors a program called RSVP (Refund Support Vocations Programs). For every $500 a Council or Assembly donates to support a seminarian, Supreme will reimburse that Council or Assembly $100 until you hit the $400 refund max (which means the seminarian received $2,000 in support). This program is one way that the Knights help foster the religious vocation and how we continue to support priest, bishops, and the Church in making sure there are future clergy to serve it and its Catholic faith community. Annually our Council participates in this program by supporting a seminarian. The Dean of Seminarians assigned us Seminarian Wesbey Victor for this year as our candidate for the RSVP program. Our Council, again this year, will be making a $500 donation to Websey that he will be able to put towards his tuition fees in Seminary for this year. Please keep Wesbey in your prayers as he continues formation towards the Priesthood.
2020 Annual Knights College Scholarship Essay Contest – Once again this year we are running an essay scholarship contest open to all High School Seniors within the Pine Bush Central School District that are active in the Catholic Church. Those interested should write an essay on this year’s chosen topic and submit it accordingly for review by our Scholarship Committee. The Committee will then pick the top three essays by popular vote and those three finalists will be voted on by the larger Council during our regular business meeting. We will be announced this year’s essay topic in the coming weeks of April 2021. We will also at that time announce this year’s essay submission deadline along with the other rules of the contest on this website at that time.
You must be logged in to post a comment.