Monsignor James S. Conlan Council #5329 – Fall/Winter 2021 Activities Summary

 

Monsignor James S. Conlan Council #5329 – Fall/Winter 2021 (October-December 2021) Activities Summary

The Knights of Columbus Monsignor James S. Conlan Council #5329 spent the months of October through December 2021, as well as, the month of January 2022 busy building towards several key annual initiatives that our Council undertakes during the Christmas Holiday season each year. The months of planning, fundraising and preparation leading up to these events culminated in work we are very proud of achieving as it really helped our parish, community, and our faith through its completion. We humbly approached these works knowing without God’s grace and spiritual support there is no way we could have humanly achieved these things on our own without His help. Truly we were reminded that God is great always, but maybe a bit more so during this past 2021 Christmas liturgical season. We also were reminded how great our community and parish were in their compassion, kindness, and charity. Again, without your help there is no way we could have done what we did and you too are a gift sent to us by God through His love and mercy to all those in need of our help. We started out this Fall 2021 with literally nothing financial wise in the bank and somehow through the grace of God and with your support came through to make things happen. Even when we thought the jar would run empty– it continued to give flour for new bread. As always we enter 2022 so grateful for our Lord, our parish, our community and all the Brother Knights who so generously give of time, talent, and labor to make these things happen. Here is what we have been up to:

Knights Membership Drive – Our membership drive was very successful this past fall/winter and we were able to grow our ranks with four more new members to Council. We also saw the return of several members we had not seen active for a while. For some Councils this may not be many, but each brother Knight brings new talent, ideas, and capabilities to our human resource pool that otherwise we would not have. Each is a gift of God to achieve His plan through our work and faith in Him. Their impact was felt immediately as we took to the work at hand. We appreciate their joining/rejoining and continued good work in our Council. Please keep all our Council members in your prayers especially our new members and those who have become active again. We appreciate your continued support and prayers for our Council’s success!

Coin Drop Fundraiser – Our Council Coin Drop Fundraiser that took place in early October 2021 and it was a huge success that far exceeded our expectations thanks to the generosity of so many donors. You can read more about the event here. We raised over $1,000 and that is huge for our Council. The coin drop itself took in $978 dollars and thanks to some generous additional donors in the following weeks we ended up well over the $1,000 mark when all was said and done by the end of the month. A special thank you again to the Town of Crawford Board for approving our permit . Also thank you to all the shoppers and management/workers of the Pine Bush NY Hannaford Supermarket for their patience as people made donations entering and exiting the shopping plaza. Though we were on a public road we realize it impacted people’s time as they made their way to and from the supermarket. We really appreciate the patience of everybody and all the brother Knights who helped make sure that all were safe during the event. Again we cannot thank all our donors enough as this literally made everything else you are about to read here possible. Another gift from God!

Annual Charitable & Benevolent Raffle Books Fundraiser – We supported the New York State Knights Annual C&B Books Raffle fundraiser once again this year during the Fall and Winter months by selling raffle tickets. Each raffle donation made supports Catholic schools and also helps to support vocations through donations made throughout Catholic Church seminarians New York State. This raffle is ruby by the New York State Knights of Columbus. Books are $10 and contain six chances per book. The more you buy, the better your odds of winning!  The drawing was held by NYS Knights in December 2021 and unfortunately the winners were not from our Council’s ticket sales. If we did get a winning ticket bought through our Council we would get additional money back from NYS Knights to further support our good works so we were really rooting for all who purchased tickets from us. You can learn more about the NYS Knights C&B Fundraiser here. Grand prize was $25,000. 2nd Prize was $10,000. 3rd Prize was $5,000. There are 10 consolidation prizes also given out at $1,000 per pay out. That’s a grand total of $50,000 in prizes paid out to lucky winners (again not from ticket sales)! Regardless were were able to sell $550 worth of tickets and a good portion of that came back to our Council to be used towards our charitable works. We also exceeded our quota goal for ticket sales and that gave us a bonus refund back to our our fundraising pool further growing our funds to make more things happen this past fall/winter. Thank you to everybody who supported this fundraiser by buying tickets and to all our Brother Knights who worked so hard to get this many tickets sold. This year’s sales were by far the most we have ever sold in a given year! Yet another gift from God!

Annual Wartime Prayer Books Donations – Each year the Catholic War Vets Post 1937 in Pine Bush NY sends out prayer books to US military troops stationed domestically or abroad through a program they are part of in the larger Catholic War Vets organization. Soldiers are nominated by local community members to receive the book at no cost and through the program additional soldiers are selected to be supported by the Post. This ensures that Catholic American soldiers throughout the world get access to these prayer books at no cost to them. It’s a wonderful way to show support for our troops and let them know we are thinking, as well as, praying for them. This prayer book is called the “Wartime Prayer Book” and was written by the Most Reverend Venerable Fulton J. Sheen. It is considered a classic work of his and has been used by Catholic soldiers for decades as a source of solace and strength during times of duress whether during peace or wartime service. You can purchase a copy of the book here from Catholic.com if you want one for yourself or someone you know.  We first supported this program in Fall 2020 and again this year we voted to support this program with another donation in October 2021. The prayer books were delivered to each solider by the Catholic War Vets in December 2021 and in January 2022 we received a thank you card from them for our donation towards the program.  This means once again 200 more soldiers this past Christmas season had a copy of the “Wartime Prayer Book” in their hands as a source of spiritual encouragement. A truly beautiful Christmas gift that we are proud to have helped to make possible through this excellent program run by the Catholic War Veterans. We are so proud to help support this initiative once again through this partnership with the Catholic War Vets and to give back to those all these soldiers some small token of appreciation for the literal everything they give up for us to remain free as they serve our country in its defense. Please keep all our American soldiers and their families in your daily prayers, as well as, pray for the souls of those deceased soldiers who gave the ultimate sacrifice in service to country. They are all truly are a gift from God.

2021 Annual Christmas Meals for the Needy Program – Each year we purchase a full dinner to feed needy families and people on Christmas. This gift from our Council gives dignity and nutrition to those who otherwise would not have a full Christmas dinner this past year. Families are located throughout the Pine Bush Central School District area (covering some five towns throughout Orange, Sullivan, and Ulster Counties). This includes our Parish community area and other adjacent areas. Families are selected by the PBCSD social workers and school nurses through the district’s food security program. We partner with the PSBCD each year to get them the food they need to feed as many families as they need us to support in a given year. We also work with a local grocery stores to leverage our money to its best usage and always steward your donation with the utmost care. This program is directly offset in cost by our Annual Fall Coin Drop Fundraiser and our Annual Spring 50/50 Council Raffle. Your support of these fundraising events helps us to make programs like this possible. This year the Pine Bush Central School District could not accept food and instead asked our Council to support the PBSCD’s holiday food safety initiative by donating gift cards instead. This is due to NY state COVID pandemic safety restrictions and PBSCD employee resource constraints caused by a number of challenges facing the district. We donated $500 to the PBCSD in gift cards and Hannaford Supermarkets generously also partially matched our donation with their own additional $100 in gift card donations allowing us to make a total donation this year of $600 to the District to support 12 families in the PBSCD during the holiday season with a holiday dinner. We also included 12 Christmas cards with our Knights logo on it so that each family will receive their gift cards in a way that also to spread some Christmas cheer to those in need, as well as, supply them with a sense of dignity. This is not a hand out– it is a hand up! Regardless of who they were, what their faith beliefs are, or where they lived in the PBSCD we wanted them to know our prayers were with them regardless of their faith, beliefs, and whatever their situation is. Our thought is this way they know someone cares about them this Christmas season and that we want to make sure they have food on their table come Christmas morning. While we do not know who these 12 families are we do know they have children in our school district and that alone is heart wrenching enough. Separately, we were glad to hear that once again our brothers in the Catholic War Vets Post 1937 also made a donation this year to this program as well. The Catholic War Vets also do this program each year. They fed an additional 6 families in the PBSCD. This means that between ourselves and the Catholic War Vets there were 20 PBSCD families this past Christmas that had meals on their table come dinnertime that maybe normally would have not much of anything to eat come that day. We consider this a small Christmas miracle and praise God for helping us to make it happen as it is yet another gift from Him to these families. Please keep all our PBSCD families especially those who face food insecurity daily in your prayers, as well as, all the employees of the PBSCD who work on this program as well as many of the district’s programs that help those in need. Many of these people donate time to these initiatives outside their normal job duties to make sure those in need are fed within our community.

2021 Coats for Kids Program –  Each year our Council utilizes the Knights of Columbus’ Coats for Kids program to purchase children’s winter coats at cost. This program is directly offset in cost by our Annual Fall Coin Drop Fundraiser and our Annual Spring 50/50 Council Raffle. This year we doubled our donation for a total of 24 coats. All 24 coats ranged in size, but were for sized for elementary school age children 6-10 years old and were the warmest grade of coat suitable for our frigid northeastern winters. 12 of the coats were for boys and 12 were for girls. This year we partnered with the Pine Bush Central School District social workers and school nurses to provide these coats to 24 children in need within the school district. As stated above, the PBSCD has a list of children who are at risk and in need due to their financial situation. We do not know who these children are, but they too are 24 more children in our PBSCD community in need of assistance that are of elementary school age. We cannot stress how upsetting this is to know that there are children in need in our community like this, but we hope that through this donation we can at least help out 24 more children to stay warm this year while they are outside this winter. The coats were donated in December and you can read more about the event here. We thank you and God for helping us to make this happen for these children. Keep these children in your prayers as well. One day they will be the leaders of our nation and those lending a helping hand to those in need– they are are truly a gift from God for our world’s future.

Annual Parish Christmas Tree Donation & Church Christmas Decoration Assistance – Each year our Council donates a tree complete with lights to the Church of the Infant Saviour and decorates it at no cost to the parish community (beyond the electric needed to light it). This Annual Parish Tree Lighting event is part of of our Council’s community service to the Parish and yet another way we give back charitably to our Parish Community. You can read more about the event here. This year we had to raise the tree twice as a heavy winter wind storm blew it down a week after we put it, but when all was said and done the tree was bigger than ever (standing at over 13′ tall) and brighter (brand new larger lights) and back in the ground throughout the rest of the season. We received a lot of positive feedback from the parish and community at large. It was a wonderful sight to behold as you entered the Hamlet of Pine Bush. Father Rodrigo with assistance from Jerry Domingue and several brother Knights also setup a beautiful Nativity crèche on the opposite side of the entrance to the church. This made a beautiful two fold scene between the tree and crèche with the church illuminated with twinkling lights in the middle hung over the church entrance. We are truly grateful for Father and Jerry’s work, as well as, the help of all the brother Knights involved in both those initiatives. The local tree farm we purchased the tree from was kind enough to donate delivery of the tree at no charge. We also want to thank all those brother Knights who helped out on with decorating the church for Christmas just ahead of the Christmas eve vigil mass on December 23rd. We became aware that the church needed help decorating several weeks ahead of the event and thanks to those Brother Knights along with members of the parish community the church looked amazing come Christmas eve. It was such a wonderful sight to behold thanks to so the many involved in making it happen! On top of this Father Rodrigo built an even bigger interior nativity scene this year for the sanctuary and it was truly wonderful to behold come Christmas mass. Truly yet another wonderful gift from God through His people and their kindness.

Council T-Shirt Fundraiser – Once again our Council is selling t-shirts to raise additional funds for our various initiatives to the parish community. These are the same shirts worn by our council members during our manual labor intensive charity work. They are durable cotton t-shirts that have the Knights logo on the front right chest and feature a flag with a cross on that back boldly surrounded by the line “stand for the flag, kneel for the cross”. They are available in all sizes from small to extra large in men’s sizing. These are a great gift for those you know who are both patriotic and dedicated to the Lord Jesus Christ. You can purchase a shirt for $15 from any of our members or you can contact us if you are interested in buying one. Not a gift from God, but they can be a gift from you to someone you love!

2021 Spring 50/50 Raffle Fundraiser – Our Council will be holding a 50/50 raffle fundraiser with only 50 tickets chances being sold in order to support our various annual charity programs that support church, parish, and community. This is our primary fundraising event for the year that lets us accomplish most of the things we do throughout the year. Each raffle ticket is $50 and with only 50 chances being offered this is a great opportunity to help out local needy families, as well as, win a great cash prize. There will be one grand prize winner receiving a $1,000 cash prize and a second place $250 cash prize! The remaining proceeds raised by the raffle will be used by our Council to offset the costs incurred by our charity programs such as our annual RSVP Catholic Seminarian donation program, our annual parish children’s religious education program donation, our annual  Coats for Kids program,  our annual Christmas Dinners for Needy Families Program, various donations to parish and community families in need throughout the year, our evangelization program that purchases Catholic educational material including books for our parish community, parish decoration programs such as the Parish Christmas tree and other holiday decorations, donations to the Catholic religious community including to support Holy Orders vocations development, and all the other things we do throughout the year to help those in need in our Church, parish, and community. This raffle is open to all members of our parish community. You can purchase a ticket for $50 from any of our members or you can contact us if you are interested in buying one. Once all the chances are sold we will be holding a drawing and follow up with an announcement once two winners have been drawn randomly in a blind drawing to be held at a future Council meeting this Spring 2022.

Cash Donation Made to Family In Need – We were contacted by a local Catholic Deacon serving another parish within the Archdiocese that he had been contacted by a family in need in a local Orange County NY community near (but not in) Pine Bush NY in December 2021. Though this family was not part of our traditional Council footprint we decided that regardless we needed to help out given the situation they were in. To keep anonymity we do not want to divulge too many details, but we trust the source the need came through and a Knight does not view a municipal boundary as some magical wall to stop our ability to help those in need. As such we made a $500 donation to this family in need to help them in their time of duress that same month. Please keep this family in your prayers as they face many challenges still and need all the spiritual support they can get given their situation. We never know when emergency situations like this will arise and when they do we have to act fast to help as time is always of the essence in some of these situations. As such, this may help you understand why raising funds is important to our Council and we appreciate your continued support of work like this. We just do not know what a given month will bring to us and we want to respond to all we can within our area who are in need like this even if it means spending more month in a given month than we planned. We trust that God will see this and give us what we need when we need it. So far we have never been let down by doing this and we have been doing this a long time. We have no plan to quit doing so any time soon as long as God wills us to continue to do so. We place are trust in Him and not ourselves.

Monthly Prayer Intentions – Something we do at each Council meeting is share prayer intentions for a given month and give updates as those situations brought forward play out whether they be for the better or worse. Brother Knights bring forward issues sometimes very personal and sometimes issues they are not directly related to, but have become of aware of in their circle of friends, family and life. No month is short on need for prayers. To keep privacy we do not share these outside our Council though we do send them out to Council members who may not be present to hear them during the meetings in our meeting minutes. Beyond that though these prayer intentions are kept within our Council to protect those being prayed for as not everyone wants someone to know when they are in need of support and prayers. Regardless, this past four months we have seen more prayer intentions brought forward for many reasons during our monthly meetings even though we have had less Knights in attendance and though we cannot tell you who these are for we humbly ask you to keep these prayer intentions in your prayers as clearly the need is great right now for whatever reason. We thank you for doing so and it may be one of the best ways to support our Council as prayer is truly a powerful gift given to us by the grace of God. Thank you for your prayers for those in need. Again we trust in God and His divine providence no matter what happens. God is good all the time though we may not realize right now or in this life. We will though. Trust in God.

 

 

Monsignor James S. Conlan Council #5329 – Looking Ahead

2021 Annual Jerry’s Jars Fundraiser – 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 several years ago  after this was started and it is great that we can keep his ministry alive as he looks on from Heaven. Nominations came from many different resources and are done anonymously as in years past. Only a few Brother Knights that are vowed to secrecy know who we donated 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 seemingly magically 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 we used all the change from the October 2021 Coin Drop Fundraiser as a “seed” fund for the jar. This started the jar at over $75 before any brother Knights put in money. Additional money was collected through donations made by brother Knights (and their families) between November 2021 and February 2022 (we had low turn out at meetings from the final surge of COVID that made getting the funds in a bit more delayed than previous years). We are finally at the point where we are ready to make our donation and once that happens we will update you including an estimated final donation amount.

2022 Annual Knights College Scholarship Essay Contest – Once again this year our Council will hold our Annual Essay Scholarship contest that is open to all High School Seniors within the Pine Bush Central School District that are practicing Catholics. Essays about a specific theme have to be in to our Council either by email or US Postal Service by a specific date in May 2022 that will be announced in the coming month. The selected essay winner gets a $500 scholarship check from our Council to use towards their college or vocational education come Fall 2022. We are in the process of selecting a theme and will announce the contest rules and as well as the selected theme for this year in March 2022. Stay tuned for details in you are interested in entering for a chance to win this year or know a high school senior in the PBSCD who might be!

2022 Annual K of C RSVP 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 with a $500 scholarship donation towards to their educational formation that year. We are working with the Archdiocese of New York’s Dean of Seminarians to select a seminarian for this year as our previous candidate was ordained a priest last year. He was the third seminarian ordained a priest in the last five years of the program alone. Some of the seminarians were first year and some were second seminarians, but all three made it through to ordination on schedule! We also are looking into the possibility of selecting a seminarian from a local neighboring parish if there is a candidate that is local, but if not we will be working to get another assigned seminarian from the Dean. We should know who our candidate is in March 2022 and follow up from there as we work to get him a $500 check to be used towards his educational formation in the seminary.