2024-2025 Top Council in the State of Washington

and
4-Star Council

Reminder: Membership Meetings

This is a reminder that if you would like to be involved in our Council’s decision-making or have ideas that might be beneficial to our mission, to attend our upcoming Membership Meeting on Tuesday evening, March 10th at 7:00 PM in the basement of St. Olaf’s Gallager Center. Our following meeting will be held on Tuesday, April 14th.

We will discuss events and activities for the upcoming months and would value your input and suggestions as we move forward. Thanks to everyone for all your support.

Our Officers

Chaplain – Father Albert Arulappan
Grand Knight – Mark Maruda
Deputy Grand Knight – Vacant
Chancellor – Brian Tucker
Advocate – John Rebar
Recorder – Allen Beck
Financial Secretary – Larry Devlin
Treasurer – Roy Behling
Warden – Leo Beer
Inside Guard –  Vacant
Outside Guard – Vacant
Trustee 3 Year – David Meier
Trustee 2 Year – John Wahlfors
Trustee 1 Year – Alan Arnesen
Lecturer- Gary Fahey

If you would like to serve in one of the vacant positions, please notify Grand Knight Mark Maruda or Financial Secretary Larry Devlin

Washington State Council Bulletin, Linked Here

Family – Keep Christ in Christmas Poster Contest

Our Family Chairman, Brother Asa Rubman led a hugely successful Keep Chirst in Christmas poster contest among the youth of our Parish. Our entry winners were submitted to the Washington State Council for consideration at the State level. Our kindergarten entry by Osiel Gurrero Hurrera came out on top in State Competition and is being submitted for consideration at the International Level. The State Bulletin linked above includes his entry along with the other State-level winners on Page 16.

Well done to the Osiel and Brother Asa!

Family – Valentines Day Art

Brothers Asa Rubman and Jonathan Jordon put a very unique art exposition together for the youth of our Parish where the children painted melted plastic albums. The kids were great and really came up with some unique productions.

Upcoming Events

St. Patrick’s Dinner

Our Council will be hosting our annual St. Patrick’s Dinner at St. Olaf’s on Sunday March 15th with meal service beginning at 5 PM. Brothers Leo Beer and Nick Weber will again be heading up the meal prep, which will begin at 2 PM in the Hall. We’ll need help in all the usual phases, i.e., meal prep, hall setup and decoration, meal service, and cleanup so please join in on any or all of these phases.  This is a great time to wear those green shirts!

St. Olaf’s Monthly Pancake Breakfast

Our next breakfast is Sunday, April 5th. 

We just completed our March Pancake Breakfast and it the best ever, thanks to the fantastic turn-out of Brother Knights, making it such a joy to take in the fraternity of the many amazing men of our parish and of our Council! It was a joy to also have the participation of several youngsters who busily served meals and contributed to the clean up. Thanks for all you do to make this Council so vibrant and successful!

Please remember to mark your calendars for upcoming 1st Sundays and come join us in one or all of the various phases beginning at 6:30 AM to get set up and do meal preparation work, at 9:30 AM after Mass for cooking, serving, and restoration, at 11:30 after Mass for the same, plus clean up, which usually lasts until about 1:00 PM. Wear those green shirts!

Exemplification of Charity, Unity, and Fraternity
March 8th

We held an Exemplification on March 8th after Coffee and Donuts at St. Olaf’s where we welcomed four new Brother Knights; Aidan Ogilvie, Tom Arnesen, Camerson Smith, and Nathanial Radetski.  We were also honored with the presence of our newly assigned Field Agent Chris Salp! Please reach out and congratulate them.  If you know of someone who should become a Knight, please invite them to join us by completing the application at bit.ly/joinuskofc.

Virtus Training through the Archdiocese of Seattle

Our Knights of Columbus Council 8297 at St. Olaf’s who are either being or likely to be a volunteer for Knights of Columbus activities in and around St. Olaf’s or St. Cecilia’s, that might involve vulnerable children or adults, necessitates that you get a background check and complete Virtus training through the Archdiocese of Seattle. So, with that, please create an account at https://virtusonline.org/virtus/ and go through the process of obtaining the certifications. This is in addition to any SAFE training and certifications through Knights of Columbus via Praesidium. They are two separate but similar programs that do not interface with one another so we have to do both. Thanks for attending to this as soon as you can so that we can remain compliant with Archdiocesan requirements.

KC HELP

Our Brother Knight volunteers work tirelessly every day to assist people in need of specialized equipment as they deal with the physical effects of aging or recovery from surgeries or accidents. It’s difficult to adequately express the immense gratitude that we see day in and day out and to imagine how these people might have dealt with their difficult circumstances had KC HELP not been available to assist them. If this is something you would like to be involved in, please contact us at 360-981-3179 to join our other Brother Knights in this essential work.

In the last 12 Months KC HELP has provided 5,690 items to 2,977 people totaling $1,464,515 in value, $2,039,945 when including hours and mileage.

Inception to date, KC HELP has provided 17,513 items to 9,346 people totaling $5,056,300 in value, $5,903,466 when including hours and mileage.

Our Council has been an exceptional supporter of KC HELP, not only through the volunteer work of several of our members, but through financial support. Most recently, our Council donated the proceeds from our last Tootsie Roll Drive!

The big news this month is that received our Occupancy Permit for our new Service Center in Bremerton, which means that we can begin the moving process from St. Vincent de Paul in Bremerton to our new location at 939 North Callow. We will hit it hard beginning on April 15th through April 18th so if you would to help, please come join us!

If you would like to help get this building paid off, please consider donating to the KC HELP Capital Campaign at https://bit.ly/kchelpcapcampaign or by scanning this QR Code:

Birthdays this Month!

Happy Birthday to all of these Brother Knights!

Knight of the Month

Brother Larry Smith is our Knight of the Month. Larry helped KC HELP navigate the City of Bremerton’s Building Permit process and produced all the necessary architectural drawings that we needed to successfully get the permit approved and signed off, ultimately getting us to the Occupancy Permit. Thank you Larry for all you did to make this all possible!

Family of the Month

Our Family of the Month is Raul and Carmen De Luna. Brother Raul is quick to join in when hard work is needed around St. Peter’s and St. Olaf’s and Carmen is dedicated to helping Fr. Albert improve his Spanish-speaking skills. We always enjoy their lovely family and grandchildren as they participate in the goings on around St. Olaf’s. Many thanks to the De Luna Family and the bright light they shine on our Parish Community!

4-Star Council Award

Our District Deputy presented our 4-Star Council Award on January 11th before our Exemplification. Take a look. It mounted in the Parish Hall next to the Knights of Columbus bulletin board. Thanks and Congratulations to all for making this incredible accomplishment possible!

Assembly 2433

We are working toward  rejuvinating our 4th Degree Assembly by welcoming new members and holding monthly Membership Meetings on 3rd Tuesdays at 7 PM. In these initial meetings, we are becoming familiar with traditional protocols and rehearsing honor guard and sword handling techniques. If you would like to become involved in the Patriotic Degree, please come join us in these initial stages. We have agreed to provide a $200 stipend to the first 10 men toward the purchase of their 4th Degree uniforms so this is a great time to take advantage of a very generous opportunity.

The latest Supreme 4th Degree Newsletter is here: https://conta.cc/4szGhbl

Good of the Order

Pray for the health of all our Council’s Brother Knights as our members’ age demographic continues to increase. Specific prayer recipients are our Parish Family Priests Fr Mark Kiszelewski and Fr Albert Arulappan.

Prayers for the health and well-being of Brother Knights PSD Kim Washburn, Nick Ogilvie, Tony DeCarlo, Brian Poppell, Gary Fahey, Jim Kellog, David Lasser, Storm and Caroleen Smole, and Bob Tomas. Prayers for Prayers for Wayne Pridgen (friend of Ric Rebar), John Wahlfor’s granddaughter Emily, David Meier, Bill Moriner, Jim Rebar, Nora Bell, Joe Bell’s wife, Steve Reichley and his son and daughter, Ellen Strickland, Mary Therese Bartlett, Leigh Bartlett, Julie Beer, Roy Behling’s wife Karen and daughter’s health, Larry Devlin’s sister-in-law, Anne Wahlfors, Steve Murray, Nancy Rogers, Henry and Cindy Huetter, and our service men (particularly council members) and service women and our many KC HELP clients. Pray to successfully retire the debt on property for KC HELP.

Handy Council-Related Links

If you would like a handy set of Council-related links that you can add to your phone’s home page, try this: bit.ly/m/8297