december 2006 newsletter


OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF COUNCIL ST. THERESE COUNCIL 7406 KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS

december 2006 newsletter

FROM THE GRAND KNIGHT

A lot going on for this Knightline, so I’m going to pass on my words of wisdom in order to give as much space as possible to Council news.

However, I urge each of you as Catholic gentlemen, and members of the Knights, that during the coming month to call out “Merry Christmas” to your friends and neighbors. With each card you send, each gift you wrap, make sure they’re accompanied by the greeting that Christ and His blessings are the reason for this season. “Happy Holidays” just doesn’t cut it!!

To each of my brother Knights and to all of your families, please accept my personal thanks for the gifts of cooperation and work with which you have supported me this past year. Your help in making this Council a strong part of the St. Therese community is one of my most treasured gifts of this holy season. And, to all of you, my wishes for a Blessed, Happy, Wonderful, Christ-filled Christmas.

No meetings will be held in December. The Christmas party will take the place of our social meeting and Christmas Day falls on our second meeting day.

A First Degree initiation will be held on January 8 and a Fourth Degree Meeting will be held on December 18 at 7:30. Only those have received the Fourth Degree honors will be permitted to attend the December 18 meeting.

Members of 7406 can stand tall these days since the Council recently was awarded two very prestigious KofC awards. The first is the Father McGiveny Award for membership attainment and the second was the Founders Award for Council members covered by KofC insurance.

According to District Director Ed Kane, these awards are attained by only 10 per cent of all Councils order-wide.

We just missed Star Council award due to some paperwork not getting to Supreme in time.
Current goals for our Council are eight new members and four new insurance members.

According to Supreme’s report to the Council, we are currently a family of 161 members. That was before the addition of three additional members late in November. With new families moving into our parish, we should continue to grow through transfers from other Councils and new members joining us. (You do have a form 100, don’t you?)

Again this year, we will celebrate Christ’s birth by joining together in our annual Christmas Party. The party will be held on December 16 after the 5:30 Liturgy. We’re all asked to attend that Mass as families, then gather in the Parish Life Center for dinner. All members of your families are invited to enjoy a catered Italian dinner.

If you signed up at the last meeting to attend the dinner call other brothers and let them know about the dinner. Let’s have a great crowd for this occasion. We do need an accurate head count for this, so please contact the Grand Knight at kjfusaro@charter.net or by phone (828) 478-4827 and let him know how many will be attending. Cost will be $20 per family.

According to Brother Stewart McLamb, Squires program is off the ground with eight young men committed to forming a St. Therese group. Their first charity project will be the selling of Christmas Cards after the Masses the weekend of December 2-3 and following weekends as long as supplies last.

The Squires need a minimum of 15 to start a chapter. As soon as that number is reached, the first meeting will be scheduled. (And, if you know of any young men who’d be interested in becoming a Squire, call Stewart at (704) 902-9456 or e-mail him at stewartm@corencorp.com for further information.)

We still haven’t found that “perfect” replacement for the loss of income from Lowe’s Speedway, but we keep adding to our Council checkbook in small ways. Our sale of discount coupon books resulted in a net income of $3,110 and our Halloween Patch pumpkin sale brought in a profit of $1,920.35. Congratulations and thanks to all those who worked these two fund raisers.

We’re still attempting to make the Bobcats Arena work for us. We haven’t had as many volunteers to work at the Arena as we hoped, but there is still an opportunity there for us as the year goes on. To date, we’ve made $316 in two appearances there. According to St. Matthew’s Council, the spearhead on this, we’ll be asked to provide Knights for one or two events during each of the coming months. If you care to volunteer for this, you can get full details from Mark Daly at restondaly@yahoo.com or you can call him at 704/987-4316.

St. Therese will be starting a new discussion program in the near future titled “WHY CATHOLIC”. This is an ongoing, world-wide program that helps participants to better understand their faith by meeting in small groups to pray, study scripture and discuss the Bible and their faith. The first subject to be discussed will be the Apostles’ Creed.

The discussion groups will number less than ten persons and will meet in a different private home each week over a six week period. Each group will have a group facilitator who will lead the discussion. The program is being introduced to all the St. Therese lay groups and the Knights have been asked to take a prominent part in the overall program. More details from Dave Conklin, Youth Minister, at (704) 664-7762 or dconklin@sainttherese.net.

Mark Daly reports that LAMB totals continue to rise. A letter, signed by Brother Daly and the Grand Knight, was sent out to all Knights who did not participate in this year’s program requesting them to “buy” a box of Tootsie Rolls as their contribution to the program. So far, a number of Knights have responded and their financial help has enabled the program to reach $10,450,62, Last year’s total was $9,566.43. Some of last year’s major contributors have not been heard from yet so it’s conceivable that we just might hit $11,000 before the end of the year.