Monsignor James S. Conlan Council #5329 – January-March 2022 Activities Summary
The Knights of Columbus Monsignor James S. Conlan Council #5329 worked on the following initiatives during the months of January through March 2022:
2021 Coats for Kids Program – We received a thank you note from the Pine Bush Central School District for our donation of 24 winter coats for elementary school aged children in need of them within the school district. You can read more about the event here. We are happy to report all 24 coats were given to children in need of them and that the donation quickly went to good use.
Parish Christmas Tree Removed – We took down the Church of the Infant Saviour Parish Christmas Tree that we donated for this past year’s liturgical Christmas season in late January 2022. The large amounts of lingering snow and ice delayed removal a few weeks, but we finally were able to remove the tree before we had to start considering whether there is a such a thing as a Easter tree or not. All kidding aside, we thank Deputy Grand Knight Matt Rommel for getting the tree removed despite the challenging weather conditions. We plan on working with the Church to coordinate the planting of a permanent evergreen tree for the Parish. This is something we are working on for Springtime 2022. Our Council will be donating not only the tree itself, but also providing the labor to both plant and water it over the coming months. We will let you know as work progresses, the tree is planted, and if all goes well that it takes to the ground for year after year use for decades to come.
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.
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.
Monthly Prayer Intentions – Thank you to all of you who responded to our call for prayers for our Council members and their families, as well as, friends in need of prayers. So many prayers have been answered by the Lord these past few months that it leaves us truly blown away by both His mercy and love for all of His children. We know those prayers were heard in part because of you petitioning God on our behalf. Thank you so much for your continued spiritual support and prayers. They are much appreciated by all of us!
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. 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 back in October 2022. 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 also did not have any immediate needs brought to our Council as we have in past years, but God knows what He is doing as when we finally did find someone in need it was no mystery why the Lord asked us to do this a bit later than normal. In March 2022 we delivered our jar for this year to an elderly person in great need within our community. We were able to collect an estimated amount between $450-500 for the jar this year through many generous donations by our Brother Knights and their families, as well as, the local community. This person who received the jar this year was very grateful for our timely gift in their time of need they literally told the one brother Knight chosen to give it to them “it is like an angel just showed up at my door and poured out God’s love for me in my time of need.” Please keep this person in your prayers as they continue to navigate numerous medical and financial issues in their life. Both that person and our Council appreciate your prayers for them.
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. Suggestions for essay themes were submitted by our Council members between January and March 2022. During our March 2022 Council meeting we selected from 8 suggested themes three final contenders and in that run off vote we selected this year’s theme. We will be posting the contest rules and along with the selected theme for this year in April 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!
Monsignor James S. Conlan Council #5329 – Looking Ahead
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. In addition to the Supreme RSVP Council reimbursement program, this donation is made possible through community support through our various fundraising initiatives including our Annual 50/50 Raffle Fundraiser above.
2022 Annual Pine Bush NY Memorial Day Parade – The Catholic War Vets Post 1937 in Pine Bush NY will be coordinating the 2022 Pine Bush NY Memorial Day Parade this year. The Catholic War Vets are working with a number of public, civic, government, community, veteran, and first responder organizations to bring the parade back now that we are past the worst of the pandemic and starting to return to a more regular way of life. The parade has been very popular with the Pine Bush area community in years past and the hope is to get a good turn out to honor all our veterans within the community this year. We have been invited to march in the parade this year along with many other local organizations. We will let you know more details as the parade information is announced by the Catholic War Vets. Memorial Day this year is Monday, May 30, 2022.
Annual Church of the Infant Saviour Religious Education Donation – Our Council will be making its annual donation to the Church of the Infant Saviour religious education program once again this year. This year we are donating $300. Because we met our annual C&B Raffle ticket quota this year with the Knights of Columbus New York State Council, we are eligible for a partial reimbursement by the Knights State Council for this donation to offset the donation amount. In addition to the State Council Religious Ed reimbursement program, this donation is made possible through community support through our various fundraising initiatives including our Annual 50/50 Raffle Fundraiser above.
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