Worthy SKs and Fellow Brothers,

It is an honor to share the following official announcement:

LOCAL KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS COUNCIL 953 RECEIVES TOP AWARD

Sacramento Knights of Columbus Council 953 has received the distinction of Star Council, the international organization’s top award for local councils.

The Star Council Award recognizes overall excellence in the areas of membership, promotion of

fraternal insurance benefits, sponsorship of faith formation programs and service-oriented activities.

During this challenging year, Council 953 adapted and continued to stand in the breach, serving our brothers, families, parishes, and communities. The Supreme Council recognizes these achievements and acknowledge the hard work of the brother knights under Council 953.

Throughout the 2021-2022 year, Council 953 has worked diligently to achieve STAR Award under the Spiritual guidance of their Chaplain Father Davy of St. Mary’s Parish.  

Some of the Council’s highlights of the Columbian Year include ProLife Fundraisers, March for Life, Novenas, Intellectual Disability, RSVP for Seminarians, Habitat for Humanity, Vocation Dinner assistance, Veterans Benefit Dinner, Sacramental Gifts, Family of the Month, Sacred Heart Altar Society Cookie Drive, Bishop Gallegos Home Gift Drive and Prayers in The Pew to name just a few! 

Our council’s award plaque will be shipped to our Worthy District Deputy Mike Amparan for a later presentation.

For information on joining the Sacramento Knights of Columbus contact local Membership Director Bob Willett at (916) 485-7939 or bob@sacramentohomes.net.

As our New Columbian Year has just began, we started the month of July with our PGK/Ol Timer’s Dinner and Installation with our Chaplain Father Davy in attendance with new Pastor to Sacred Heart, Father Richards.  We celebrate our Knight of the Month Devin Rodgers and Family of the Month Ricardo Saldana who’s wife Monica was the First Lady honored to lead a Chapter Rosary in it’s history! The donation check from the last Cookie Drive was made out to the Sacred Heart Altar Society and delivered by our ProLife Director Al Fernandez.  We also presented Bishop Soto with our annual donation to the Bishop’s Fund during the State Chapter Dinner in Vallejo. 

I also wanted to take this moment to say thank you to our Brother Steve Mills who has served for years as our Hall President and to congratulate our new incoming Hall President Brother Tom Nulk! 

Thank you Brothers for your continued inspiration and work in the name of our Lord as Catholic Men! May we continue to make proud our past Brother Knights and continue on the legacy began by our founding Council of 1905!

Marco Ferrero, Grand Knight
Knights of Columbus Council 953

Worthy Brothers,

Our 54th annual “Oktoberfest” was a spectacular success! Everyone in attendance had a wonderful time listening to live German music while eating delicious brats and drinking Deutsch beer. The dinner was a great fundraiser to help continue running our council operations. On behalf of the whole council, I extend our gratitude to Brothers Tom Nulk and Steve Mills for running such a fun and successful dinner – Thank You!

By the time this Newsletter is published, we will have already held the Giant Shrimp Dinner on Saturday, November 9th. We pray for Brother Al Piccardo and everyone volunteering to help make this dinner a success as well. On November 3rd a beautiful Memorial Mass was held in honor of Past State Deputy Dick Cutting and our other fellow Brother Knights who have fallen asleep in the Lord over the past year. The event was held at Saint George and was coordinated by Brothers Fred & Adam Struck. Thank you to all who attended and thank you to the Struck family for ensuring this solemn and sacred Memorial Mass was celebrated. On the volunteer front, Brother Knights from Council 953 rolled up their sleeves to work on a painting project for St Mary’s Rectory. We also volunteered for two build days for Habitat for Humanity. We helped prepare the pouring of the foundation for the Build for Unity project and also did work on another Habitat rehab project. Over the two days our Knights volunteered 30 hours to help increase the stock of affordable homes and fight the California housing crisis! Our Brother Knights also spent several hours praying on the sidewalks outside of local abortion clinics during the 40 Days for Life Campaign. Statewide, our combined efforts helped change the hearts of many mothers resulting in the rescue of 454 babies’ lives – Thanks be to God!

On November 23rd a special Knights of Columbus Retreat is being held at Christ the King Retreat Center. All brother Knights and their spouses are invited for this one-day reflection. See the flyer in this Knight Letter for more details and please consider joining Knights from our Council and other councils around Northern California for this day of spiritual contemplation. Finally, please mark your calendars for December 12th. We’ll be holding our annual Christmas Party at the Hall. Hope to see you all there!

Thank You,
Shane Clark
Grand Knight, Council 953

Worthy Brothers,

The council is pleased to announce that our September Mexican Night dinner was a resounding success. The event helped raise $1,640 for Clara’s House to aid in their mission of providing basic health care services to the under insured in Sacramento. This year featured a live mariachi singer, Veronica Esparza, who provided wonderful live entertainment along with the traditional piñata for the kids. Thank you to all the brother Knights who volunteered to help make this night possible with a special thanks to Brother Greg Wolfe for chairing this event. Make sure to mark your calendars for our fun-filled German Night on Saturday, October 26th. We will have live German music to accompany the brats and beer! Additionally, our council is helping the Newman Center with their Tri-Tip fundraising dinner on October 19th. Attending this dinner is a great way to help support our neighbors across the street.

As detailed in last month’s Knight Letter, the St Mary Parish rectory has been painted with the exception of 3 metal screen doors. We need a few volunteers to help complete this project. The planned work day is October 14th. If you would like to spend a couple hours of your Columbus Day morning volunteering to serve the church, please e-mail me at gk@kofc953.org. Let’s continue to put our faith in action by helping to serve our communities and parishes together as Brother Knights. Our next Habitat for Humanity Build for Unity project will be November 2nd at 5125 Stoner Drive Sacramento, CA 95820. Please e-mail me if you would like to volunteer to help build a home for a deserving family and help fight the California affordable housing crisis.

We also have a great opportunity to participate in a Knights of Columbus retreat on Saturday, November 23rd. Come join your brother Knights from Council 953 and across Northern California for this one day reflection at Christ the King Retreat Center. Our Faith Director, PGK Fred Struck, will be sending out more information in the coming weeks. Finally, the council is planning to open the hall for our brother Knights to watch the World Series on the new TV’s that have been installed above the bar. Stay tuned for more details, but we hope to see you there!

Thank You,
Shane Clark
Grand Knight, Council 953

Worthy Brothers,

Whew! What a busy month it has been. As we pause to catch our collective breath,
let’s stop and look back on all that we have accomplished:

• We kicked off the Columbian Year with our first fundraising event, our annual Tri Tip dinner. As always, Al Piccardo and his sons outdid themselves and gave everyone an enjoyable evening.

• We organized and ran the zippy bun booth at the 86th annual St. Mary’s Parish festival, continuing a multiyear tradition of supporting the parish and serving up one of the festival’s most popular food items.

• We began what I hope will become a new tradition by running the bar at the St. George Parish BBQ. Despite the 108-degree temperature when the social hour began, it was a fun and ultimately successful event.

• We hosted what was almost certainly the only bilingual First Degree ceremony Council 953 has ever held. Six new Brother Knights joined our Council, and several Spanish-speaking Brothers joined a neighboring Council.

We could not have pulled off so many events in such a short period without the many Brothers who generously gave of their time and effort. Their names are too numerous to mention here, but they know who they are. On behalf of the entire Council, and those who benefit from our work, thank you!

One benefit of being the oldest Council in Sacramento (and one of the oldest in California) is that we have a great deal of institutional knowledge. Our oldest members have been Knights for two, three, or even four decades, and many of them have served in just about every capacity imaginable. Their experience and wisdom help guide our Council forward. However, our older Brothers will not always be with us. The future of this Council, or any Council for that matter, lies in our newer members, so it is encouraging that virtually all our
core officers have been Knights for only a few years. Still, so many of our newer Brothers are not particularly active, and I would love to see us change that.

If you are a newer Brother, I encourage you to think about how you can play a more active role in the life of our council. We would love to hear your ideas and get to know you better as a fellow Catholic gentleman. If you have been a Knight for a while, reach out to one of our newer members and invite them to one of our dinners. Remember the second principle of the Order: unity. Whether we have been Knights for three decades or three weeks, this is OUR council, and there is no limit to what we can accomplish united in brotherhood.

Thank you,
Adam Struck
Grand Knight, Council 953