August 2007

Brother Knights,

It was wonderful to see many old familiar faces at the July meeting. I hope that this trend continues to grow thru-out this fraternal year and that all of us working as a team of one can accomplish our goals this year. The newest and largest goal this year is organizing a joint venture with our church to hold a Casino Night to be held on January 26th at the Richmond Times Dispatch Production Plant on Rt. 301. This event will be Co-Chaired by Paul Byrnes and Frank Gerloff. The proceeds from this venture will be split between us and Redeemer’s Building Fund.

To successfully run such an event we will need all the help of our membership along with our fellow parishioners at Redeemer. Thus this brings me to the next point or order - MEMBERSHIP - now is the time for each one of us to reach out to our fellow parishioners and ask the catholic gentlemen of our church if they would like to become a member of our Order and Council in the Knights of Columbus. You can let them know of all the things we do like supporting KOVAR, SCAN, VOCATIONS, our Youth Scholarship Program, and the upcoming casino night this January. Let them also know about our social events like Spaghetti with Santa, Knights Christmas events, Superbowl Party, children’s Easter Egg Hunt, and Our Annual Knights Family Picnic on Labor Day Weekend.

If you know of a good candidate invite him and his family to the upcoming Knights Family Picnic at the home of JoAnn and Mike Bonelli on Sept. 1st Labor Day Weekend (please refer to the picnic insert for more info.). Don’t forget to let them know to be at the picnic before 2:00pm so they can enjoy and take part in an open Mass and communion to be given by Father Jim @ 2:00pm SHARP!! If you are not sure on how to recruit a new member ask any officer of our Council or PGK Bob Birmingham our recruitment chairman, PGK Joe McFadden our membership chairman or myself your current Grand Knight.

CHRISTMAS CARDS FOR OUR SERVICE MEN AND WOMEN OVERSEAS: The war in Iraq has taken it’s toll on all of us but no more than the families of those serving in the war to protect our freedom. This is why I have decided, along with our Christmas Card Chairman Lin Diacont, to implement a new program for - KCIC - Keep Christ in Christmas. Lin will be accepting cash donations to be used towards purchasing as many of our religious Christmas cards as possible. We will then ship the blank cards to our Military Service people in Iraq so they can use them to send home to their love ones. Orders must be in by Oct. 15th so that the cards can get to the military personnel in time to be used. Everyone can help out with this initiative by either making a cash donation or by letting other people know of this program at your workplace and network of friends and accept the donations and pass them on to Lin Diacont. Remember this is something we can all do to show our support and appreciation to those who put their lives on the line everyday for us.

Fraternally Yours,