Kolbe Council Line

November/December  2020

(Newsletter for St. Maximilian Kolbe Knights of Columbus Council 11355)

Meetings: We will not be meeting in December, the Grand Knight will let us know about the availability of a live meeting in January.  Hopefully we will be able to meet as a group again. Vivat Jesus!!

Faith In Action (Council Programs)

Faith Programs

Leave No Neighbor Behind-Parish Support

Fish Fry:  We had about 15 knights come out on Friday October 23rd and cook a drive thru fish fry with all of the money going to St. Max in support of all of the charitable works we do as a Parish.  We were able to donate $1274.00 to the Church.

RSVP-Oktoberfest: I am happy to report that we made just over $1,000.00 for our online Oktoberfest donations, so with the Council matching funds we were able to provide the four $500.00 scholarships to our Seminarians that we have been supporting.  Ethan Hoying, David Gross, Christopher Buschur, and Henry Hoffman will all be receiving their RSVP scholarships.

Into the Breach:  We are planning on having a program utilizing the “Into the Breach” videos produced by Supreme.  The Deputy Grand Knight is coordinating this activity which hopefully will be able to utilize live meetings.  The Council will be helping coordinate this event and inviting all men of the Parish but we will keep the KofC promotion to a minimum and concentrate on gaining the trust of men that may be hesitant to be actively involved with the Knights.

Family Programs

Keep Christ In Christmas:  We are asking for $5.00 donations to Elizabeth New Life Center on our website and giving away a Keep Christ in Christmas magnet to the first 100 donors. The magnets have been paid for already and we thought this would be a nice way to give to Elizabeth New Life Center since we had to cancel the bake sale during Lent when we had this pregnancy center designated as the recipient of those proceeds.

Leave No Neighbor Behind-Thanksgiving family social

Each year our Council has donuts and refreshments for Parish families to enjoy after 9am Thanksgiving Mass and we also provide food for local firemen who are working on Thanksgiving day.  This year we were asked to skip the refreshments after Mass but we did provide the provisions for the firemen to have Thanksgiving dinner.  Thank You to Brother Bill Johansen for taking care of this once again.

Community Programs

Coats For Kids:  This was extremely successful this year.  We collected enough money online this year to buy 225 new coats to keep kids warm this winter.  We provided the coats to St. Leo The Great Parish, Reach out Lakota and West Liberty Outreach.

Hunger 5K:

St. Max Council 11355 created a team for this virtual 5K called Knights Against Hunger to help raise money for Matthew 25 Ministries to provide food for local families.  We had a team of 18 members: 16 Knights and 2 family members. We raised $350.00 for this food drive effort.

Measure Up:  We were not able to have our collections for individuals with disabilities this year but we did have a tremendous response to our Gimme five/Gimme ten campaign with our dues.  Brothers added either $5 or $10 to their dues for “Measure Up”.  We doubled our normal amount for the dues contribution and still have a check to send out to Butler County Therapeutic Recreation for $664.00.  I reached out to Connie at Butler County and she was so thankful.  She said part of the money will be used for a scholarship fund to help people with disabilities participate in community activities that they cannot afford and the remainder will be used to offset the fees for their softball league at the Joe Nuxhall Miracle League Fields.

Life Programs

Butler County Right To Life Life:  Prayer March For Life- Sunday Jan 24th 2-3pm:  Keep this date open, the prayer walk takes place in Hamilton and we walk around the Old Butler County Courthouse;  101 High Street, Hamilton Ohio.  Our council has participated in this the last 2 years.  The walk lasts for around an hour and is a very moving pro-life event.  We have KofC signs to carry.  The change this year is that the March is on Sunday and not the 22nd which is the anniversary of Roe V. Wade.

Novena For Life- We are planning on having our Novena for Life again.  This year as we did last year, we will email out devotions and prayers to the Council and anyone else that signs up for the nine day Novena. The Novena will start Monday, Jan 25th after the Right to Life Prayer March on Sunday Jan 24th.

Membership

We are attempting a virtual membership drive during December.  Supreme is offering free membership through the end of the year.  See our notice in last week’s Church bulletin.  Our membership quota is 9 for this fraternal year.  We have a net of one new member, so we need 8 more for this year.

Dues:  The financial secretary will begin sending out dues notices during December.  You will get 2 email notifications and then a hard copy mailing after the 1st of the year.  Please try and get your dues mailed in or go online to our website and pay. The dues will remain at the low price of $30.00 for the year.  We are asking that you consider adding $10.00 for our “measure up” collection again this year.

Council 11355 Social Media:

Council website: www.saint-max.org/KOC

Facebook: www.facebook.com/kofcsaintmax

Twitter: https://twitter.com/kofc11355