Dear Brother Knights:

The Council continues to thrive, but there is no doubt that we need more Knights. January was a busy month for the Council, highlighted by a fantastic dinner followed by the longest business meeting of my tenure as Grand Knight. Two weeks later we had an outstanding crab feed, put on by Al Picardo and his lovely wife Peggy. The highlight of the night was the thrilling wins by George Mills and Kevin Riley during the raffle. I’m sure the crab feed will be another financial triumph for the Council but we can’t simply raise funds and consider ourselves successful. We also must be impactful with our charity, and our community outreach.

Brother Dale Edwards reported at the Officers meeting that over 175 children at St. Mary’s school participated in the annual free throw contest, with another large group of children participating at Sacred Heart. These are fabulous numbers which represent one of our most impactful community outreach programs that we participate in as a Council. In addition to these, we have our largest charitable donations slated to be disbursed over the next three months. Scholarships for students at Christo Rey, stipends for seminarians, money to help support Pro-Life groups and children trying to visit their parents in prison. These incredible causes are worthy of our support, and I look forward to seeing these checks written and disbursed by our Financial Secretary.

But to grow our ranks, and thus provide more energy, manpower and enthusiasm to increase our charitable giving, we must create more opportunities to volunteer and be present at the parishes we represent. We must develop stronger relationships with the priests that fall under our Council and reach out to them to see how we can be of assistance. It would be my goal, and my wish, to see us help out at least once during this Columbian year at the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament, and Immaculate Conception parish. We know that the Bishop has put an extra layer of bureaucracy on our Order, to insure the safety of our young people by requiring finger printing and training classes, but we are going to cross that hurdle next month. I have scheduled in person training and finger printing to take place at our March business meeting so that any Knight who wishes to volunteer, will be able to fulfill the Bishop’s wishes with very little inconvenience. By being present at the Parishes we represent, and volunteering there, we give ourselves a chance to recruit more Brother Knights to our Order.

So, in the spirit of our Brother Dale Edwards, let’s reach out to our parishes and create an opportunity over the next four months to be present and helpful at our local parishes. St. Mary’s, Sacred Heart, The Cathedral. St. Francis, Immaculate Conception, St. George, Holy Spirit, and St. Andrew’s are all waiting for their Knights to make an appearance. Let’s see if we can find our way to perform a little outreach and show our potential Brothers what we are all about.

Most Sincerely,
Bryan McKrell
Grand Knight, Council 953