Council Updates – Summer & Fall 2025

Posted on by

Dear Brothers and Sisters In Christ,

Back in July 2025 I was elected the Grand Knight of the Knights of Columbus Msgr. James S. Conlan Council #5329 by my Brother Knights in the Council. We also brought on board a whole new roster of Officers including Sam Cernone (Financial Secretary), Bill Cronin (Deputy Grand Knight), and Tom Fobert (Treasurer). Our (now) Past Grand Knight Joe Ditizio and his predecessor Past Grand Knight Charlie Cino along with our Past Treasurer John Lenihan had for close to two decades been in some leadership role in our Council and in no short terms revived our Council after years of inactivity, built up our membership to the robust roster we have today, and for close to two decades rolled out numerous charitable programs that have benefited our Pine Bush community, our Infant Saviour Parish (along with its parishioners), and our Church. Those same programs also built a strong partnership with our Brothers and Sisters in the Catholic War Veterans Post#1937 Pine Bush NY as well as many other local veterans organizations. We built partnerships with our local Pine Bush Central School District and through the the genersority, kindness and compassion of so many local businesses, parishioners, fellow Christians of other denominations, those of other faiths and even those of no particular faith, our many kind community members, and even those well outside our community to help so many in need including mothers, veterans, the elderly and children in need. What Joe, Charlie, and John accomplished during their leadership term is nothing short of amazing. It was backed by so many Brother Knights some of which are still with our Council, some who now find themselves infirmed or ill and too many of which we have lost to this world but hold the firm hope in Christ are now with our Lord. The names are too numerous to mention but none of these Brother Knights are forgotten or taken for granted. They stand as shining examples for the next generation of Brother Knights to aspire to.

With humility I continue to steward us forward in this same tradition as well as try to responsibly expand our efforts beyond what we have done in the past. This is a task that would not be possible if not for my fellow Brother Knights in our Council as well as their families who so generously help us to continue to grow our charitable program offerings. We continue to also partner with other local Councils and look for what to build better relationships with organizations who share our values such as our Sisters in the Catholic Daughter Pine Bush Court. We also look for those who share our goals and show high levels of responsibility in their allocation of funding as much as possible to those in need. I want to thank the so many people who have offered their assistance, financial support, and so kindly enabled us to achieve things only possible through community, Church, and partnership. The Knights have always been dedicated to serving those in need and growing our Faith’s teaching impact on the world around us through that same service. We also seek to evangelize our Catholic beliefs to those who may not know them.

Below is some our work this past half year of 2025 that I am grateful for and whose success I can only attribute to God continuing to work through His people if those people are willing to listen to His call to love others as God has loved them.

In service to one. In service to all.

Christopher M. Welch
Grand Knight – Msgr. James S. Conlan Council #5329

SUMMER & FALL 2025 MILESTONES

  • Cor Men’s Prayer Group – In August, under the the leadership of Deputy Grand Knight Bill Cronin and the direct spiritual guidance of Fr. Niranjan Rodrigo, we launched our new Cor Catholic Men’s Prayer Group. This group meets monthly for an hour. Bill and Fr. Rodrigo along with other Brother Knights lead a Rosary in community. They then go over various topics about the Catholic Faith including prayer, Church history, dogma and teachings of the Church, and some genuinely interesting topics that help to deepen our understanding of why we believe what we believe. It is a lot less intellectual than it sounds and any Catholic man of any Faith level is able to join and participate. You do not have to be a Doctor of the Church (a topic we covered in one session) to understand these discussions. Nor do you need to know every prayer out there to pray along as Bill and Fr. Rodrigo do an excellent job of “meeting people where they are”. If you are a Catholic man in our Parish 18 years old or older you can join us at any given month (monthly attendance not require) in the Infant Saviour Church Hall. There is even doughnuts and coffee! You can find out when the next Cor meeting is by checking out our Events Calendar.
  • C&B Raffle Books Fundraiser – We participated in the NY State Knights C&B Raffle Book fundraiser by selling raffle chances once again this year. We started way back in January and really picked up steam in July. Raffle tickets sales end this coming week of November 9th as we need to have all our tickets in by December 1st for the final raffle drawing. We sold more raffle tickets this year than in any past year we can recall (over 65 books). Each book contains four chances and is sold at $10 per book. We keep a portion of the ticket sales and redirect those funds into charitable works programs. The remainder goes to the NY State Knights who also redirect those funds into charitable and benevolent works throughout New York State. Some of that work includes supporting Catholic school tuition scholarship programs, purchasing materials for Catholic school educational programs, helping those in need (including the elderly, poor, infirmed, single mothers, and children) and evangelizing our Faith through programs, educational material, and charitable service works such as Coats for Kids (more on that in a bit). Because of our Brother Knights’ hard work selling raffle chance this year we have already been named one of only six other Councils who were the top fundraisers in the Hudson Valley region. This put our Council on the State Deputies Trophy Club honor roll for this year– a huge honor for our Council. This would not have been possible without the support of the many people who bought raffle chances (some 260 individual tickets plus). We thank you as always for your charity and support. We wish all the best of luck at the final raffle drawing in December.
  • Feeding Families Initiative – The Feeding Families program focuses helping organizations within a given community to feed those in need. We have partnered with the Pine Bush Central School District Social Works Office who in turn works with each school’s Nurse and the school district’s bus drivers to distribute food to children in need. The District purchases food through its separate Food Pantry program that is volunteer operated and funded through donations therefore creating no cost to the School District itself beyond the space required for food distribution. Volunteers provide their own transportation and gas to distribute food from a central pick up point to each school. We have had several Brother Knights including DGK Bill Cronin who coordinates our volunteers routes and pickup assignments. Brother Knights Joe LeClair and Bob Yackel are among several other Brothers who continue to help out with this effort. Beyond just delivering meals for the program we have also sponsored three children in the program for the entire school year. This is three children who will not go hungry and will receive three meals every day of the week for a year. This would not be possible if not for a Brother Knight (who wishes to remain anonymous) who so generously offered to sponsor two children at his own expense as well as the Catholic War Vets who split the third child’s funding with us. We are so grateful for this financial support as it will directly impact three young people and guarantee them a sense of food safety they may not otherwise have.
  • Hudson Valley Knights Chapter Golf Outing Fundraiser – In August, we had eight Brother Knights volunteer to play in this year’s HV Chapter Golf Tournament fundraiser. PGK Joe Ditizio lead our Council’s participation in the event by coordinating with the HV Chapter as well as our Council’s players. Each Brother Knight made a charity donation to enter the golf tournament out of their own pocket. Our two quartets of Brother Knights unfortunately did not win this year though we do understand that they lost a few golf balls in the rough. It happens. These charitable funds will be used by our HV Chapter towards it charitable works throughout this year. In the past these have been the Hudson Valley Honor Flight program, the birthing centers program that provide ultrasound machines to clinics and other non-profit medical providers focused on pro life initiatives, and the Coats for Kids program.
  • Habitat For Humanity – We participated in supporting the Hudson Valley Habitat for Humanity’s Volunteer Appreciation BBQ in September. We donated $50 to help support supplies for the event as did the Catholic War Vets. We also had a few Brother Knights volunteer at the event and help to serve the volunteers food. This is a small but important way to thank the organization that partners with the HV Chapter often to provide housing for those in needs through the Hudson Valley including in nearby Newburgh, NY.
  • Church Landscaping Volunteers Program – Brother Knight Frank Sullivan coordinated with Infant Saviour Church’s buildings and grounds person, Jerry Domingue, in assisting him with various maintenance projects at the Church including cleaning up the landscaping and the church itself. These volunteers provided their own equipment and time throughout the Summer into the Fall to assist Jerry in whatever he needed help with. Jerry himself is a longtime Knight and we thank both him as well as Frank along with others who helped out to “spruce things up”. Nice work Brothers!
  • Knights Promo Items – Thank you to Treasurer Tom Fobert who donated a new banner for our Council to use at fundraising events. Also thank you to Brother Knight Dan Becker for purchasing us collection buckets for the same purpose. If you attended any of our fundraisers these past two months you probably saw these items. We greatly appreciate their contributions and thank them both for their continued service as a Knight.
  • St. Paul’s Church Coffee Hour – We not only have Infant Saviour Church and its mission chapel Our Lady of the Valley as part of our Council’s parish coverage, but we also have St. Paul’s RC Church in Bullville, NY. We have several Brother Knights who attend mass there and we have been looking for ways to better reach out as well as support that mission church (that is part of the National Shrine of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel) more actively. In November we sponsored two coffee hours after mass on the first weekend of the month. Several of our Brother Knights also attended the event.  We plan on doing more with St. Paul’s but this was a very nice first step to re-introduce ourselves to the Parishioners as well as to let them know about our Council.
  • Valley Supreme Liquors Fundraiser – Thank you to the owners of Valley Supreme Liquors in Pine Bush NY for allowing us to fundraise outside their store in September. We also would like to thank the many very generous people who donated to us. These donations will help cover our Coats for Kids initiative. We had a very positive experience and great feedback of encouragement from the community as a whole. We are grateful for both your ongoing support of our work and more so your trust in us with how we use those funds. It is something we do not lightly and we appreciate it very much.

We have some more great events and things we are working on. Stay tuned!