Fall 2025 Updates

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The Knights of Columbus

This Fall 2025 season has been quite busy for the nights of Columbus Monsignor James S. Conlan Council #5329. Here’s what we have been up to these last few months:

  • Pine Bush Harvest Festival – We talked about in our last update how we were able to raise money for three children for a year’s worth of food through the Pine Bush Central School District Food Pantry program. One of the ways we did that was by fundraising at this year’s Pine Bush Harvest Festival. The Pine Bush Lions Club hosts the event in partnership with the Town of Crawford and Pine Bush Chamber of Commerce. Our booth this year was made possible by several Brother Knights in our Council who stepped up to donate our new banner, our new fundraising buckets, and let us borrow the items needed to set up a booth. This made it possible to raise the funds needed for one of the children in partnership with Catholic War Veterans Post#1937 Pine Bush NY as well as through a large generous donation by a Brother Knight who sponsored two other children. Our Council is blessed to have such generous and kind members as well as have such great partners in the community such as the Lions, PBSCD, and Catholic War Vets. We thank all the very generous donors who stopped by our booth and also donated money to make sponsorship of a child possible. We greatly appreciate you all!The Knights tent at this year's 2025 Pine Bush Harvest FestivalThe Knights tent at this year's 2025 Pine Bush Harvest Festival

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  • Feeding Families Program – Speaking of our partnership with the Pine Bush Central School District Food Pantry; we should also add besides sponsoring three children for a year’s worth of food through the program that we also have had several Brother Knights step up and donate their time to help the program out. Four of our Brother Knights in particular have been helping out weekly to deliver food from the main site to each school that in turn then gets the food to each child. The PBSCD recently recognized us on their Facebook page because of these Brothers’ dedication to the volunteering to help others in need out within our School District. We are so proud of their work and thank each of these Knights for their dedication to making sure the program is successful. Many other organizations and individuals in the community also help out so this far from just our effort but by working together on a common cause we all ensure the program is successful in meeting the needs of the children in the program. We are so grateful for our Pine Bush community, the School District and the surrounding area where so many people help out as well as contribute to making the Food Pantry work. We are glad to be a small part of that program’s success.
  • Our Brother Knights as the PBSCD Food Pantry helping out with food deliveries.

 

  • Thurible for the Church of the Infant Saviour – Our Council purchased and donated a new thurible to the Church of the Infant Saviour in anticipation of the Parish’s upcoming Jubilee Centennial Year in 2026. We presented the thurible (a metal vessel used during Mass and services such as Adoration to burn incense in) to church Pastor Father Rodrigo during our November 2025 Council Meeting. Father thanked our Council for the donation and we are appreciative of all the work he does to make our Parish a welcoming community for all our Parishioners. We hope this small gift can further enrich our worship and praise of God during Mass as well as Adoration services.

Grand Knight Chris Welch with Church of the Infant Saviour Pastor Father Rodrigo and the new thurible our Council donated to the church.

 

  • Coats for Kids Program – We received a thank you card for our Council’s donation of 36 cold weather “extreme cold” coats from the Pine Bush Central School District. We provided the District’s Social Worker office with 36 brand new coats that were purchased at wholesale price through the Knights of Columbus Coats for Kids program. We have been doing this donation annually for over a decade and recently raised funds for it through our “God Bless America” lawn sign fundraiser, our Harvest Festival fundraiser, and our Valley Supreme Liquor Store fundraiser. Our Council sponsored one box of coats (12) and that was matched by the Catholic War Veterans Post#1937 Pine Bush who bought another box as well as a generous Brother Knight who donated to cover a third box. These 36 coats were used at Pine Bush Elementary School and given out by the School Nurses’ Office to children in need that are enrolled  in the PBSCD Food Pantry program. None of this would have been possible without so many generous donations from the Pine Bush community, our Church parishioners, the Catholic War Vets, and our members generosity. We have been supporting the donation of coats to the School District for four years now and this is a wonderful way to help out those in need during the cold months we are entering where these coats are most needed.
  • St. Paul’s Church Coffee Hour and Wine & Cheese Hour – Our Council sponsored a Wine & Cheese hour on 11/1/25 and a Coffee & Cake hour on 11/2/25 after the Church’s Saturday and Sunday mass. Several Brother Knights were on hand to help serve the Parishioners at St. Paul’s RC Church in Bullville NY. We also recruited for our Council and had several interested men from the Parish in possibly joining. We plan to continue to participate more at St. Paul’s Church and have several members who are active Parishioners there. In addition to the Church of Infant Saviour in Pine Bush NY and its mission church Our Lady of the Valley in Walker Valley NY, our Council also covers St. Paul’s Church in Bullville NY as well. We appreciate St. Paul’s hospitality and giving our Council a chance to sponsor one of their events as it has been some time since we have done so in that Parish Community.
  • Catholic Daughters of America Infant Saviour Court Blessing Box Food Pantry – The Catholic Daughters asked our Council to help construct a “blessing box” outdoor food pantry similar to the many others that other churches have in the Orange County NY area. Our Council stepped up and not only donated the man hours to construct the box but also donated most of the materials needed to build it. One particular Brother Knight was behind this work and donation of materials but did so on our Council’s behalf. We installed the new blessing box and the Catholic Daughters last weekend hosted its official “grand opening” with a blessing by Father Rodrigo. The Catholic Daughters manage this program and accept donations of shelf stable food that is both unexpired as well as new in its original packaging. If you are interested in donating food or other items such as toilet paper or paper towels you can drop off donations in the Parish Hall of Infant Saviour Church after each mass. There is a collection box in the Church Hall by the stage as well as a list of instructions explaining what items are and are not accepted. The Daughters then put the donations in the box as needed to ensure it is well stocked and items rotated out as needed. The blessing box is located outside the Church’s Parish Office on Holland Avenue in Pine Bush NY. Anyone in need can take items at any time 24/7 but we do ask you only take what you need so that we can ensure all have fair access to this wonderful ministry especially during these challenging times. We thank the Catholic Daughters for spearheading as well as maintaining this program. We appreciate the opportunity to help them get this food pantry off the ground and operational for not only our Parish community but the entire Pine Bush community as a whole. We also appreciate the hard work of our Brother Knight who worked so hard to build it.

The Catholic Daughters of America Infant Saviour Court Blessing Box located outside the Church of the Infant Saviour Parish Office.

  • Valley Supreme Liquors Fundraiser – On 9/24/25 our Council fundraised for donations outside the Valley Supreme Liquor Store in the Valley Supreme shopping center in Pine Bush NY. We are greatly appreciative of the ownership and management for letting us set up our booth outside the store. We are also very appreciative of the so many generous people who donated to us and trusted us with the stewardship of these donation funds. All these programs above were funded by these donations in part and none of them would have been possible without your generous donations.  We are truly humbled by your kindness and compassion.
  • Town of Crawford House of Worship Safety – Our Council sponsored cake and coffee two weeks ago for the first in a series of safety awareness talks being given by the Town of Crawford Police Department to interested churches and other places of worship within the Town. One of our Brother Knights spearheaded the coordination of this event and worked with the Police Department to setup a safety presentation by the Police to the parishioners after a recent weekend afternoon mass at the Church of the Infant Saviour. It is unfortunately a reality given the many recent events where houses of worship have been the focus target of malicious actors, but we are truly appreciative of the Crawford Police for giving very meaningful guidance and helping our Parish to be prepared in the event of any emergency incident at Church. We also thank Father Rodrigo for allowing us to host the event at the Church and the parish community for coming out in such a large number to participate in the presentation. A big thank you to the Crawford Police for running the presentation as well as for taking the time to make sure members of the community are properly trained and made aware of what to do in the case of an emergency situation.
  • Keep Christ in Christmas Program – As we have done the last two years, our Council will once again be selling Keep Christ in Christmas themed lawn signs after each weekend church mass at Infant Saviour Church starting next weekend. We have a new variant of our sign for Advent this year and we cannot wait until you see it. This year’s design is absolutely beautiful and we thank several Brother Knights for spearheading this event as well as helping to guide the production of the signs. Stay tuned as we will be giving you an update on this within the coming week once signs are available for purchase.
  • Church of the Infant Saviour Parish Christmas Tree Lighting – Two years ago we donated a beautiful douglas fir pine tree to Infant Saviour Church. We planted the tree that was generously donated to us by a local tree farm that wants to stay anonymous. One of our Brother Knights has been caring for that tree for the past two plus years. Now in its third year the tree is starting to really sprout up. This morning several Brother Knights gathered to decorate the tree and this evening after the 5pm mass the tree was blessed by Father Rodrigo and Deacon Frank Rose then lit by our Council. We sung Christmas Carols and many parishioners took pictures with their kids in front of the lit tree. We thank our Brother Knight who cares for the tree for his service to our Parish community and we thank Father Rodrigo for allowing us to host the tree lighting. We also appreciate Father and Deacon for taking the time to run the blessing ceremony. Finally we thank the Parish community who came out in a fairly large number to help celebrate the tree lighting once again as we start Advent this evening. It was wonderful to gather as a community and we hope the tree serves as a wonderful beacon of hope to all who pass by the Church as they enter Pine Bush during this Advent and Christmas season.

 

.The 2025 Church of the Infant Saviour Christmas Tree lighting The 2025 Church of the Infant Saviour Christmas Tree lighting The 2025 Church of the Infant Saviour Christmas Tree lighting

 

We have some more exciting things coming up and once again thank you for continuing to support our Council’s work. We recently launched an online donation program through our partner Zeffy. You can safely and securely donate online to our Council to support programs like you see above here. Be sure to uncheck the “tip” box before you donate as that goes to Zeffy and not our Council but by having that box there 100% of your donation goes to us with no transaction fees. This is a wonderful way to support the programs, ministries and work our Council does. We thank you again for trusting us with the stewardship of your donations and will make sure every cent goes to our charity work.