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, July 8th at 7:00 PM at the St. Peter’s Residence House in Suquamish. Our following meeting will be held on Tuesday, August 12th.

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

Congratulations to our newly elected Brother Knights who will take on the leadership of our Council during the 2025-2026 Fraternal Year, beginning on July 1st:

Chaplain – Father Albert Arulappan
Grand Knight – Mark Maruda
Deputy Grand Knight – Vacant
Chancellor – Brian Tucker
Advocate – John Rebar
Recorder – David Graves
Financial Secretary – Larry Devlin
Treasurer – Roy Behling
Warden – Leo Beer
Inside Guard- Allen Beck
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

Installation of Officers

Our District Deputy, Walt Borgardt has arranged for our Installation of Officers on July 19th at 12:30 PM at Holy Trinity in Bremerton in conjunction with Council 12251, 1379, and 11789. All officers should make every attempt to attend and please wear your Green Shirts!

St. Olaf’s Work Party

Fr. Mark has asked our Council to assist in some long-overdue housekeeping at St. Olaf’s during the week of July 14th. He arranged for dumpsters to be delivered on Monday, July 14th. Under Grand Knight Mark Maruda’s leadership, we will meet at St. Olaf’s at 9 AM on Tuesday, July 15th to begin to clear out significant accumulations of paper and books that are no longer useful to the parish. Please, if you have some availability on July 15th, please join us and help make short work of this project in service to our Parish. If we don’t finish on the 15th, we’ll work throughout the week to get it wrapped up so stay tuned for email updates.

Knights of Columbus Council 8297 Dinner

Thank you to the many members and their families who joined us on Friday, June 20th, for our Mexican Fiesta at St. Olaf’s Hall. If you weren’t there, you missed a fantastic evening filled with friendship and lively conversation, all thanks to the hard work of our Grand Knight-elect, Mark Maruda, and Brother Raul Deluna and his crew.

A special shoutout to Brothers David Lasser, Mark Maruda, Larry Devlin and others who helped in the kitchen and served our members. Your efforts made the night truly memorable!

Star Council

We have received unofficial word that our Council will be recognized as a 4-Star Council in the coming weeks. Congratulations to all who made this possible! Stay tuned for the official announcement.

Membership

Please extend a warm welcome to our Council’s newest Brother Knights, who started our new fraternal year off with a bang! We are already at 50% of our membership goal because of their desire to be part of what we do and to avail themselves of our fraternal benefits:

Tom Daley
Jim Bayer
German Blanco

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 4,833 items to 2,567 people totaling $1,440,855 in value, $1,839,650 when including hours and mileage.
Inception to date, KC HELP has provided 13,855 items to 7,423 people totaling $4,155,920 in value, $4,758,354 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. The Council recently donated $3,000 and our Assembly 2433 donated $1,000 toward the KC HELP Capital Campaign to acquire the new building at 939 North Callow in Bremerton that we closed on May 16th. Thanks to everyone who made this possible! Now, the real work begins to pay off the remaining debt!

We had a great team effort in our participation in the Bainbridge Island 4th of July Parade.

Birthdays for July!

Happy Birthday to all of these Brother Knights!

Brian Tucker 1st
Douglas Hallock 2nd
Gary Fahey 5th
David Graves 6th
Oscar Hurtado 6th
David Bayer 7th
Mark David 12th
Hendrikus Roest 14th
Leo Beer 18th
Will Ogilvie 26th

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.

Dr. Bob Earhart’s funeral was held on Saturday, June 21st at 11 AM at St. Cecilia’s. Dr. Bob was Council 12551’s long-serving Financial Secretary and dedicated Brother Knight.. One of those guys we all know and admire who literally served right up to the end.

Prayers for the health and well-being of Brother Knights PSD Kim Washburn, Tony DeCarlo, Gary Fahey, Jim Kellog, David Lasser, Storm and Caroleen Smole, and Bob Tomas. Prayers for Bill (Moriner), Jim Rebar, Tony Jones’ wife, Nora Bell, Joe Bell’s wife, Steve Reichley’s son and daughter, Ellen Strickland, Mary Therese Bartlett, Leigh Bartlett, Julie Beer, Leo Beer’s sister Theresa, Roy Behling’s wife Karen and daughter’s health, Lynn Day’s wife Linda, Larry Devlin’s sister-in-law, Anne Wahlfors, Steve Murray, Nancy Rogers, Theresa Spiess, 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. We also keep Gabby McCracken in our prayers as she fulfills her FOCUS mission during the year. Also, we are praying for Jim Kellogg of Council 6706 and a KC HELP volunteer who continues to recover from his second stroke.

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

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, June 10th at 7:00 PM at the St. Peter’s Residence House in Suquamish. Our following meeting will be held on Tuesday, July 8th.

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

Congratulations to our newly elected Brother Knights who will take on the leadership of our Council during the 2025-2026 Fraternal Year, beginning on July 1st:

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

Top Council for State of Washington!

Knights of Columbus Council 8297 Dinner

It’s been several years since our Council has hosted an event for members and their families. So, Brother Raul DeLuna has graciously offered his talent and services to prepare a Mexican Fiesta meal for our Council on Friday, June 20th. The meal will be served at 5:30 PM in the Hall at St. Olaf’s. Unless you would like to lend a hand to our Grand Knight-elect Mark Maruda for pulling this together or to Brother Raul for the preparation of the meal, all you have to do is RSVP by filling out this quick form so that we can have a good idea of how much food to prepare. Please RSVP as soon as you can but no later than Monday, June 16th. We hope you’ll join us! Please RSVP at this link: bit.ly/8297rsvp

Roadside Cleanup

We had another successful roadside cleanup on May 10th. The cleanup site was just south of the Hood Canal Bridge on Highway 3. We have had great support with these efforts. Thank you especially to Brothers John and Ric Rebar, John and Matt McGinn, Jeff Pontes, Larry Devlin, and Brian Tucker who took a couple hours out of their Saturday to serve our Community in this effort. I’m sure most will agree that the beautiful scenery we enjoy here should not be tarnished by unsightful trash along our highways. If you care about that, please look forward to joining us on our next quarterly outing. We’ll keep you posted as a date is firmed up.

St. Peter’s Groundskeeping

After the landscaping at St. Peter’s was left without maintenance for several months, our Council was asked to get it back in shape and to maintain it going forward. Brothers Leo Beer, Raul DeLuna, Mark Maruday, and Larry Devlin took on the initial task with several hours of volunteer work, making it much more presentable. Anyone who would like to join in to keep it looking good, we could really use your help!

Fraternal Benefits

Our General Agent, Cicero Seisdedos is now offering a weekly virtual Fraternal Benefits Event every Wednesday at 7pm. Each month features a different topic. Use the following link to join the webinars on Wednesday nights at 7pm. https://www.kofcpacific.com/fbn/.

If you take advantage of one of these events, please let Financial Secretary Larry Devlin know so that he can submit the necessary paperwork for our Council to take credit for the Fraternal Benefit Event.

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 4,815 items to 2,561 people totaling $1,433,525 in value, $1,821,000 when including hours and mileage.

Inception to date, KC HELP has provided 13,467 items to 7,208 people totaling $4,036,225 in value, $4,614,683 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. The Council recently donated $3,000 and our Assembly 2433 donated $1,000 toward the KC HELP Capital Campaign to acquire the new building at 939 North Callow in Bremerton that we closed on May 16th. Thanks to everyone who made this possible! Now, the real work begins to pay off the remaining debt!

Donation of American Wheelchair Mission Wheelchairs to NKSD

KC HELP applied for and received a grant from the Poulsbo Rotary Club for the purchase and donation of 6 wheelchairs to the North Kitsap School District’s Physical Therapy Team.  These wheelchairs supplement one additional wheelchair that our Council donated to them a few months ago.  Our KC HELP volunteers, mostly made up of members of our Council, delivered these wheelchairs on May 27th.

Knight of the Month

We recognized Brian Tucker as our April Knight of the Month. Brian has been a Knight for 28 years and always been involved in our Parish community in a number of ways.  He is a long-time volunteer at our Parish’s St. Vincent de Paul conference and recently rejoined our Council after a brief hiatus while a member of Council 11789 at Holy Trinity. We are really glad that he is back, and now will be serving as our Council’s Chancellor during the next fraternal year. He has been a key participant in our Tootsie Roll Drives, Food Drives, and Roadside Cleanups, really making a difference in our community, our Parish and our Council. Thanks, Brother Brian for all you do!

Family of the Month

We recognized John and Matt McGinn as our April Family of the Month. They have both been long-time St. Olaf’s parishioners and Brother John has been a member of our Council for 46 years and has been mowing the vast lawns of the St. Olaf campus for many of those years. We are especially grateful for their participation in all the community support that they take on including our Roadside Cleanups, food drives, and Tootsie Roll Drives as well as being regular volunteers and ShareNet in Kingston. Thanks to John and Matt for all you have done over many years and continue to do so!

Please let Grand Knight David Meier or any of our officers if you have nominations for either Knight of the Month or Family of Month. 

Birthdays

Happy Birthday to all of these Brother Knights!

Jamie Schiele 3rd, Hilary Brixius 6th, Allen Beck 10th, Jeremy Hadfield 12th, Victor Golcher 14th, Daniel Tillotson 15th, Nick Ogilvie 18th, Robert Tomas 21st, William Looney 25th, Lawrence Devlin 29th, David Risley 30^th.

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 knights Tony DeCarlo, Gary Fahey, Jim Kellog, Emmanuel Rivas, Storm Smole, and Bob Tomas. Prayers for Bill (Moriner), John Paul Ogilvie, Jim Rebar, John Rebar’s friend, Tony Jones’ wife, Joe Bell’s wife, Steve Reichley’s son and daughter, Ellen Strickland, Mary Therese Bartlett, Leigh Bartlett, Julie Beer, Leo Beer’s sister Theresa, Roy Behling’s wife Karen and daughter’s health, Lynn Day’s wife Linda, Larry Devlin’s sister-in-law, Anne Wahlfors, Steve Murray, Nancy Rogers, Theresa Spiess, Henry and Cindy Huetter, Dr Bob Earhart, 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. We also keep Gabby McCracken in our prayers as she fulfills her FOCUS mission during the year. Also, we are praying for Jim Kellogg of Council 6706 and a KC HELP volunteer who continues to recover from his second stroke.

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

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, May 13th at 7:00 PM at the St. Peter’s Residence House in Suquamish. Our following meeting will be held on Tuesday, June 10th.

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

We have developed a new slate of officers to be voted upon in the June Membership Meeting. The new slate of officers are as follows:

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

This is the second posting for your consideration and will be posted again next month with any updates and voting will occur during our June 10th Membership Meeting. As you can see, we have a couple of slots remaining to be filled. Please let one of the current officer know if you would like to serve in either of the vacant roles or would like to compete for one of the other roles. We need some new blood with new ideas so don’t be shy! We welcome you!

Prayer for Pope Francis

Roadside Cleanup

Our next roadside cleanup will be on May 10th. We will meet at St. Olaf’s at 9:00 AM and carpool from there to the cleanup site just south of the Hood Canal Bridge on Highway 3. We have had great support the last two quarters which allowed us to completely cover both sides of the highway and be finished by just before noon. Thank you for your support in the past and we’re hoping that we will have the same level of support on May 10th! See you then!

Tootsie Roll Drive

We held our annual Tootsie Roll Drive to raise funds to help the disabled at the Kingston Safeway on April 26th and it was a very successful. We raised $1,600, 20% of which will go the Washington State Council’s sponsorship of Special Olympics Washington and the remaining will come back to us where we have determined to support KC HELP. Many thanks to our Ric Rebar, our Tootsie Roll Chairman for pulling this together. He, along with John Rebar, John McGinn, Matt McGinn, Nick Weber, Mike Haley, Jake Steiner, and Larry Devlin, manned the 3 shifts. We are grateful for them for having taken time out on a beautiful Saturday to help make a difference for the disabled in our community. Well Done!

Fraternal Benefits Presentation

Last month we held a Fraternal Benefits Presentation to acquaint members with the various offerings and benefits that are available to members and their families of the Knights of Columbus. The presentation was made by Mike Rutland. Thank you for attending and being part of these efforts.

Our General Agent, Cicero Seisdedos is now offering a weekly virtual Fraternal Benefits Event every Wednesday at 7pm. Each month features a different topic. Use the following link to join the webinars on Wednesday nights at 7pm. https://www.kofcpacific.com/fbn/.

If you take advantage of one of these events, please let Financial Secretary Larry Devlin know so that he can submit the necessary paperwork for our Council to take credit for the Fraternal Benefit Event.

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 4,722 items to 2,519 people totaling $1,417,575 in value, $1,794,641 when including hours and mileage.

Inception to date KC HELP has provided 13,046 items to 6,977 people totaling $3,920,565 in value, $4,472,378 when including hours and mileage.

Knight of the Month

We recognized Alan Arnesen as our March Knight of the Month for his work in making our Coffed and Donuts ministry such a huge success. His work is instrumental in bringing our Parish community back to life. The hall has been consistently full after the 10:30 Mass and we are all enjoying the many joyful conversations. Be sure to express your thanks and appreciation to Brother Alan. We very much appreciate his enthusiastic work.

On that note, Brother Alan and his family will be traveling to Italy during most of May so we will need for someone to step in and fill this significant void while he is gone. Please let one of the Officers know if you would be willing to step in and lend a hand,

Family of the Month

We recognized Brian and Ellen Dougherty as our March Family of the Month. They have both been long-time St. Olaf’s parishioners and Brian has been a member of our Council for 28 years! We are especially grateful for their generous contribution and serving of refreshments for our recent St. Patrick’s Dinner. Thank you to Brian and Ellen for all you have done over many years and continue to do so!

Please let Grand Knight David Meier or any of our officers if you have nominations for either Knight of the Month or Family of Month. 

Birthdays

Happy Birthday to all of these Brother Knights!

May

Clary Carlsen 6th
Michael Courtright 7th
John Ogilvie 11th
Theodore Jez 16th
Brian Poppell 19th
Tony Jones 20th
Stephen Reichley 21st
Kenneth Vanacker 23rd
Gerard Coss 24th
Joshua Toves 24th
Jeffrey Richardson 26th
Nick Weber 28th
Juan Aveuno Afable 31st
Brian Cross 31st

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 knights Tony DeCarlo, Gary Fahey, Jim Kellog, Emmanuel Rivas, Storm Smole, and Bob Tomas. Prayers for Bill (Moriner), John Paul Ogilvie, Jim Rebar, John Rebar’s friend, Tony Jones’ wife, Joe Bell’s wife, Steve Reichley’s son and daughter, Ellen Strickland, Mary Therese Bartlett, Leigh Bartlett, Julie Beer, Leo Beer’s sister Theresa, Roy Behling’s wife Karen and daughter’s health, Lynn Day’s wife Linda, Larry Devlin’s sister-in-law, Anne Wahlfors, Sally Haley, Steve Murray, Nancy Rogers, Theresa Spiess, Henry Huetter, Dr Bob Earhart, and our service men (particularly council members) and service women and our many KC HELP clients. Pray to successfully obtain a property for KC HELP. We also keep Gabby McCracken in our prayers as she fulfills her FOCUS mission during the year. Also, we are praying for Jim Kellogg of Council 6706 and a KC HELP volunteer who continues to recover from his second stroke.

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

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, April 8th at 7:00 PM at the St. Peter’s Residence House in Suquamish. Our following meeting will be held on Tuesday, May 13th.

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

We have developed a new slate of officers to be voted upon in the June Membership Meeting. The new slate of officers is as follows:

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

This is the inital posting for your consideration and will be posted again next month with any updates. As you can see, we have a couple of slots remaining to be filled. Please let one of the current officer know if you would like to serve in either of the vacant roles or would like to compete for one of the other roles. We need some new blood with new ideas so don’t be shy! We welcome you!

St. Patrick’s Day Dinner

Our Council held its annual St. Patrick’s Day Dinner at St. Olaf’s on Sunday, March 16th. It was a great success with many attending the dinner. Thanks to Leo Beer who volunteered to lead this effort, and all who helped setup, serve and clean-up after the dinner. We served a full house and had another great turnout of help in all the phases. We’re sure that Brother Leo Beer was very appreciative of everyone throughout a very long day that he put in, not to mention his incredible planning work. Special thanks to the ladies who worked so hard to decorate the Hall, including, Veronica Maruda, Kathy Devlin, Caroleen Smole, and Susan Ogilivie. It looked great! Fr. Albert also expressed his appreciation for the work of the Council in bringing the Parish Community back to life. Well Done to All!

Fraternal Benefits Presentation

Our Worthy Grand Knight, David Meier, has arranged for a Fraternal Benefits Presentation to happen on Sunday, March 30 at 12:15 PM immediately after Coffee and Donuts. The presentation will be made by Mike Rutland who is substituting for our own Field Agent, Phillip Burnett, who is under the weather. This presentation serves 2 purposes, the primary one being to acquaint you with the various offerings and benefits that you and your families are eligible for as members of the Knights of Columbus. There have been a lot of changes during the last couple of years so it will be well worth your time to take advantage of this event. The second purpose is that the event will fulfill the final requirement we have to make Star Council for the current fraternal year. We’ve had a great year and this will help us top it off in terms of meeting all the necessary goals to make it happen. So, please carve out an hour on Sunday the 30th to be with us.

Reminder: Dues and Donations

We’re closing the books on Dues for the current fraternal year. Many thanks to the 93% of you who made their dues payments and especially those who donated to the Council, to Pennies for Heaven, and to LAMB. The remaining 8% were either financially unable to make their payments or were not able to be contacted. Those who could not be contacted will be transferred to the Affiliate Membership Program, which allows them to remain as members of the Knights of Columbus but not as members of our Council. However, they are always welcome to rejoin us.

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 4,526 items to 2,455 people totaling $1,360,505 in value, $1,723,514 when including hours and mileage.

Inception to date KC HELP has provided 12,533 items to 6,750 people totaling $3,790,165
in value, $4,316,574 when including hours and mileage.

Kitsap Great Give

Many thanks to the members of our Council who dug a little deeper and supported KC HELP, which is a registered charity, eligible for donations through the Kitsap Great Give.  We just completed another highly successful fundraiser for KC HELP, which will go a long way toward making it possible for KC HELP to establish a permanent Service Center location in Bremerton.

Knight of the Month

We recognized Victor Golcher as our February Knight of the Month for diving in and being instrumental in pretty much all of the events we’ve had since he became a member in February, including Coffee & Donuts, Pancake Breakfasts, and the St. Patricks’s Dinner where he was on the ladder helping with decorations! Be sure to express your thanks and appreciation to Brother Victor. We very much appreciate his enthusiastic participation and support!

Family of the Month

We recognized Jim and Cindy Lint as our February Family of the Month. They have both been long-time St. Olaf’s choir members and tireless mentors, making our Sunday liturgies extra special. We are grateful to them and their children and grandchildren for the dedicated and inspirational service to our Parish community.

Please let Grand Knight David Meier or any of our officers if you have nominations for either Knight of the Month or Family of Month. 

Graveside Service for Jerry Goodwin

There will be a graveside service for Jerry Goodwin at Stone Chapel cemetary on April 2nd at 1:30 PM. We will present his family with a Resolution of Condolence after the service.

Birthdays

Happy Birthday to all of these Brother Knights!

March

Jerald Hemstreet 1st
Maximillian Baumann 8th
Paul Ogilvie 11th
Ryan Dodge 12th
Richard Rebar 12th
Fatukimoana Tuipulotu 16th
Luis Montes 23rd
Matthew French 26th
Romel Ramos 31st

April

Joseph Lara 1st
Francisco Reynaga Nunez 10th
Bruce Baumann 20th
James Lint 27th

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.

Pray for the health of Mark Stearns, Ellen Strickland, Mary Therese Bartlett, Leigh Bartlett, Julie Beer, Karen Behling, Tony DeCarlo, Gary Fahey, Steve Murray, Emmanual Rivas, Storm Smole, Nancy Rogers, Theresa Spiess, Bob Tomas, Glennyce Thomas, friend (fighting cancer) of John Rebar. Also, we are praying for Jim Kellogg of Council 6706 and a KC HELP volunteer who recently suffered his second stroke.

Please pray for our service men (particularly Council members) and service women and our many KC HELP clients.

We also would like to keep Christina Lara and Gabby McCracken in our prayers as they fulfill their FOCUS missions.

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

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 11th at 7:00 PM at the St. Peter’s Residence House in Suquamish. Our following meeting will be held on Tuesday, April 8th.

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

Note that we will be working on putting a new slate of officers together to be voted upon in the June Membership Meeting. The new slate of officers will be posted for your consideration 2 months before that June Meeting, i.e., initially in April. So, now is a great time to let us know if you would like to serve in some capacity as an officer of our Council. We need some new blood with new ideas so don’t be shy! We welcome you!

St. Patrick’s Day Dinner

Our Council is hosting a St. Patrick’s Day Dinner at St. Olaf’s on Sunday, March 16th at 5 PM. We are taking reservations now and until March 14th in order to know how much food to prepare. Let your friends and family know that reservations are needed and suggested donations can be made online by scanning the QR Code on this flyer:

In the meantime, we will be needing our members to consider helping out in some way, from food prep that will begin about 9 AM, decorating and setting up the hall, food service during the meal, bar tending (yes, we have a permit from the State), entertainment (probably just background music but someone needs to make it happen), and finally, cleanup afterward. Leo Beer has graceously volunteered to lead this effort but he can’t do it all! Please contact him to let him know how you would like to help. 

Reminder: Dues and Donations

We still have just a few members who have not yet paid their dues, which were due and payable on January 15. If you are among those who have not yet paid, please do so as soon as possible.

For your convenience, we have several payment options:

• By check, made out to Knights of Columbus Council 8279 and either mailed to Larry Devlin at 15975 Lindsey Lane NE, Poulsbo, WA 98370 or personally delivered, e.g., at church or a Council meeting.
• By credit card using our form at https://bit.ly/8297dues or by via QR Code.
• By going to our Council’s website at www.kofc8297.org and clicking on the “Pay Your Council Dues” link on the right side of the page.
• By calling me at 360-981-3179 and providing your credit card info for Larry Devlin to input the payment information.

We also ask you to update your contact information and your next-of-kin details. You can do this online using this link https://bit.ly/8297updatecontact

If you are a 4th Degree Member, you may also pay your Assembly dues online at https://bit.ly/2433dues.

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 4,560 items to 2,262 people totaling $1,339,575 in value, $1,688,852 when including hours and mileage.

Inception to date KC HELP has provided 11,952 items to 6,391 people totaling $3,598,720
in value, $4,083,786 when including hours and mileage.

Kitsap Great Give

KC HELP is a registered charity, eligible for donations for the Kitsap Great Give that is now going on through March 11th. We will be giving a pulpit announcement after all Masses on March 1st and 2nd. This was a highly successful fundraiser for KC HELP last year and we look forward to another sucessful one this year, particularly as we continue to pursue a more permanent Service Center location in Bremerton. Please consider supporting your Brother Knights who are working every day on KC HELP:

Knight of the Month

We recognized Mike Courtright as our January Knight of the Month for his continued and essential support flipping all those pancakes at our monthly Pancake Breakfasts! We very much appreciate his ever-presence and his long hours on his feet and in the heat. Thank you Brother Mike!

Family of the Month

We recognized Ken and Emma VanAcker as our January Family of the Month. They were both key players in the recent St. Vincent de Paul efforts to provide food for families in need during he Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays.

Please let Grand Knight David Meier or any of our officers if you have nominations for either Knight of the Month or Family of Month. 

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.

Pray for the repose of the soul of Gavin Dewitt’s father-in-law and for the repose of the soul of Jerry Goodwin. And, pray for the health of Mark Stearns, Ellen Strickland, Mary Therese Bartlett, Leigh Bartlett, Julie Beer, Karen Behling, Tony DeCarlo, Gary Fahey, Steve Murray, Emmanual Rivas, Storm Smole, Nancy Rogers, Theresa Spiess, Bob Tomas, Glennyce Thomas, friend (fighting cancer) of John Rebar. Also, we are praying for Jim Kellogg of Council 6706 and a KC HELP volunteer who recently suffered his second stroke.

Please pray for our service men (particularly Council members) and service women and our many KC HELP clients.

We also would like to keep Christina Lara and Gabby McCracken in our prayers as they fulfill their FOCUS missions.

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

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 benefical to our mssion, to attend our upcoming Membership Meeting on Tuesday evening, February 11th at 7:00 PM at the St. Peter’s Residence House in Suquamish. Our following meeting will be held on Tuesday, March 11th.

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

Pancake Breakfast

On Sunday, February 2nd, we will hold our next pancake breakfast. We thank those who were able to help out during last event. We now support breakfast for both the 8:00 Mass and the 10:30 AM Mass. We will need extra help for both Mass times. Setup will begin at 6:30 AM, serving at 9:00 AM, cleaning and re-setup at 10:30 AM, then serving and clean up at 11:30 AM. With sufficient help, we should be able to be finished with cleanup by about 1:30 PM. Please come join us during some or all of those phases. We need you!

We are especially thanful for the several of our newest members for their enthusiasm and willingness to help with this important parish ministry.

Roadside Cleanup Effort

On Saturday, February 15th, we will plan for a KC HELP Roadside Cleanup effort. So, for those interested, please meet at the Saint Olaf Parish parking lot at 9:00 AM. If we have a great turnout, we should be able to be completed by 1:00 PM.

New Members

We held a Charity, Unity, and Fraternity Exemplification for seven new members who joined our Council on Tuesday, January 28th at St. Olaf’s: Tom Collette, Mark David, Jonathan Jordan, Victor Golcher, Oscar Hurtado, Mark Meyer, and Richard Rebar. Holy Trinity Council brought one other gentleman who joined their Council at our Exemplification. We were honored by the presence of our State Deputy, Greg Mahoney, our State Membership Director, Mike Rutland, and by the presence of the families of the new members.

The honoree for this exemplication was our Charter Grand Knight Tony DeCarlo.

Reminder: Dues and Donations

We still have several members who have not yet paid their dues, which were due and payable on January 15. If you are among those who have not yet paid, please do so as soon as possible.

For your convenience, we have several payment options:

• By check, made out to Knights of Columbus Council 8279 and either mailed to Larry Devlin at 15975 Lindsey Lane NE, Poulsbo, WA 98370 or personally delivered, e.g., at church or a Council meeting.
• By credit card using our form at https://bit.ly/8297dues or by via QR Code.
• By going to our Council’s website at www.kofc8297.org and clicking on the “Pay Your Council Dues” link on the right side of the page.
• By calling me at 360-981-3179 and providing your credit card info for Larry Devlin to input the payment information.

Pennies for Heaven is a fund that supports our Seminarians and encourages vocations. The goal is to give “a penny a day, a prayer a day” for this purpose. Our Council has contributed at least $3.65 per member each year for the past several years to this fund and we appreciate your generosity that allows us to continue to do so. Last year, our members contributed almost $500 toward the support of seminarians. Well done!

LAMB is a program that assists organizations in our local communities that serve those who are most in need, such as the homeless, the hungry, the disabled, the uneducated, and for pro-life. The State Council’s goal is that every member donate $18.82 per year for LAMB, commemorating the year 1882 when the Knights of Columbus was founded. We have rounded that up to $20. Last year, our members contributed almost $1,000 to this important fund and we thank you for that!

On behalf of the Council Officers, we would like to express our appreciation for your continued and timely payment of dues last year! As you know, your very nominal dues are needed for the Council to be able to in turn, pay our per capita obligations to both the Supreme Council and the Washington State Council. This keeps both you and the Council in “good standing” which means that all of our fraternal benefits remain in effect. Your dues are also important and essential contributions to the production of Columbia Magazine, which you receive each month, Catholic advertising, and for Culture of Life causes.

We also ask you to update your contact information and your next-of-kin details. You can do this online using this link https://bit.ly/8297updatecontact

If you are a 4th Degree Member, you may also pay your Assembly dues online at https://bit.ly/2433dues.

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 4,560 items to 2,262 people totaling $1,339,575 in value, $1,688,852 when including hours and mileage.

Inception to date KC HELP has provided 11,952 items to 6,391 people totaling $3,598,720
in value, $4,083,786 when including hours and mileage.

Two members of our Council, Matthew French and Larry Devlin, along with GK Matthew Thompson of Council 6707 in Port Orchard and our PGK Eric Chamberlin now of Council 12251 on Bainbridge Island recently installed a full-sized room lift to assist a family in caring for their 29-year old granddaugher who has been disabled since birth.

Knight of the Month

We recognized Fr. Mark Kiszelewski as our November Knight of the Month for his support as he manages the consolidation of our Parish Family through the Archdiocese’s Partners in the Gospel. We very much appreciate his hard work beyond providing spiritual direction for all of us! Thank you Fr. Mark!

Family of the Month

We recognized Storm and Caroleen Smole as our November Family of the Month. They spent several hours doing a lot of hard work preparing the St. Peter’s Parish house for the reception following the Memorial Mass for our departed Brother Knights. Their work was very much appreciated by all who attended.

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.

Pray for the health of Gavin Dewitt’s father-in-law, Mark Stearns, John Ogilvie, Ellen Strickland, Mary Therese Bartlett, Leigh Bartlett, Julie Beer, Karen Behling, Tony DeCarlo, Larry Devlin’s sister-in-law Gloria Devlin, Gary Fahey, Jerry Goodwin, Steve Murray, Emmanual Rivas, Storm Smole, Nancy Rogers, Theresa Spiess, Bob Tomas, Glennyce Thomas, friend (fighting cancer) of John Rebar. Also, we are praying for Jim Kellogg of Council 6706 and a KC HELP volunteer who recently suffered his second stroke.

Please pray for our service men (particularly council members) and service women and our many KC HELP clients.

We also would like to keep Christina Lara and Gabby McCracken in our prayers as they fulfill their FOCUS missions.

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

Reminder: Membership Meetings

This is a reminder to attend our upcoming Membership Meeting on Tuesday evening, January 14th at 7:00 PM at the St. Peter’s Residence House in Suquamish. Our meeting next month will be held on Tuesday, February 11th.

We will discuss upcoming 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 – David Meier
Deputy Grand Knight – Mark Maruda
Chancellor – Vacant
Advocate – John Rebar
Recorder – David Graves
Financial Secretary – Larry Devlin
Treasurer – Roy Behling
Warden – Leo Beer
Inside Guard- Vacant
Outside Guard – Vacant
Trustee 3 Year – John Wahlfors
Trustee 2 Year – Alan Arnesen
Trustee 1 Year – Gary Fahey
Lecturer- Gary Fahey

Congratulations to Mark Maruda who was elected as Deputy Grand Knight and for Alan Arnesen who was elected as Trustee 2nd Year. Both were voted upon during the December Membership Meeting on December 10. Thanks to these gentlemen, we have almost completely filled our slate of Officers!

Pancake Breakfast

On Sunday, January 5th, we will hold our next pancake breakfast. We thank those who were able to help out during last event. Our next breakfast will encompass both the 8:00 Mass and the 10:30 AM Mass. We will need extra help for both Mass times. Setup will begin at 6:30 AM, serving at 9:00 AM, cleaning and re-setup at 10:30 AM, then serving and clean up at 11:30 AM. With sufficient help, we should be able to be finished with cleanup by about 1:30 PM. The Seahawks shouldn’t be a distraction since their year is over but set your DVDs to record the any other games of interest and come join us during some or all of those phases. We need you!

Coffee and Donuts

Serving literally hundreds of our fellow parishioners every Sunday are three of our brother knights, Jim Hopper, Alan Amesen and Mark Maruda. The two Hansville neighbors, Jim and Alan, make sure the donuts & coffee social times go smoothly without a glitch! Regular coffee, condiments, decaf coffee, chairs set up and masters of the dishwasher, they get these and other details done every Sunday. Jim handles the 8 AM mass and Alan the 10:30 AM mass. Mark Maruda also steps in to help with the transition between the two Masses and checks on everything.

Next time you are enjoying the donuts and coffee let them know we appreciate their volunteer spirit. If you want to join their team, they would be happy to show you the ropes.

Christmas Food Drive

Here is a gracious note from Mike DeAscentiis regarding our food drive last month:

“Good Morning, I wanted to thank everyone who helped with the food drive in December and those who helped with SVDP’s holiday baskets. The food collected from the drive was set up in the back of the social hall and gave the families receiving baskets an opportunity to get a couple extra bags. The remaining food was taken to Fishline, 1,007 pounds was dropped off, WOW! Again a Huge thank you! I want to wish everyone a very Blessed and Merry Christmas.”

Mike DeAscentiis
Treasurer, SVDP
“IF YOU WANT TO FIND YOURSELF, LOSE YOURSELF IN THE SERVICE OF OTHERS” Gandhi

It was a cold, windy, rainy day but our efforts resulted in a completely packed KC HELP trailer that benefited both our own St. Vincent de Paul conference but also our local Fishline foodbank. The toal load was at least 1 ton along with $328 in monetary donations. Many thanks to those who joined us: Jake Steiner and his lady Allison Simmons, Brian Tucker, Mark Maruda, David Meier, Roy Behling, and David Graves. It was a tough outing but well worth it for the difference we able to make for many people in our community during the Christmas holiday. Well done!

Membership

We are planning a Charity, Unity, and Fraternity Exemplification for five new members who will join our Council on Tuesday, January 28th at St. Olaf’s: Tom Collette, Mark David, Gavin DeWitt, Jonathan Jordan, and Mark Meyer. We plan to gather at 6:30 PM and start the ceremony at 7:00 PM, followed by a short reception afterward. Please bring your families and come join us as we welcome these gentlemen and their families.

Reminder: Dues and Donations

Many thanks to everyone who has already paid your membership dues for 2025 and made contributions to Pennies for Heaven and Least of My Brethren.  If you haven’t yet taken care of this obligation, please do at your earliest convenience.

For your convenience, we have several payment options:

• By check, made out to Knights of Columbus Council 8279 and either mailed to Larry Devlin at 15975 Lindsey Lane NE, Poulsbo, WA 98370 or personally delivered, e.g., at church or a Council meeting.
• By credit card using our form at https://bit.ly/8297dues or by via QR Code.
• By going to our Council’s website at www.kofc8297.org and clicking on the “Pay Your Council Dues” link on the right side of the page.
• By calling me at 360-981-3179 and providing your credit card info for Larry Devlin to input the payment information.

Pennies for Heaven is a fund that supports our Seminarians and encourages vocations. The goal is to give “a penny a day, a prayer a day” for this purpose. Our Council has contributed at least $3.65 per member each year for the past several years to this fund and we appreciate your generosity that allows us to continue to do so. Last year, our members contributed almost $500 toward the support of seminarians. Well done!

LAMB is a program that assists organizations in our local communities that serve those who are most in need, such as the homeless, the hungry, the disabled, the uneducated, and for pro-life. The State Council’s goal is that every member donate $18.82 per year for LAMB, commemorating the year 1882 when the Knights of Columbus was founded. We have rounded that up to $20. Last year, our members contributed almost $1,000 to this important fund and we thank you for that!

On behalf of the Council Officers, we would like to express our appreciation for your continued and timely payment of dues last year! As you know, your very nominal dues are needed for the Council to be able to in turn, pay our per capita obligations to both the Supreme Council and the Washington State Council. This keeps both you and the Council in “good standing” which means that all of our fraternal benefits remain in effect. Your dues are also important and essential contributions to the production of Columbia Magazine, which you receive each month, Catholic advertising, and for Culture of Life causes.

We also ask you to update your contact information and your next-of-kin details. You can do this online using this link https://bit.ly/8297updatecontact

If you are a 4th Degree Member, you may also pay you Assembly dues online at https://bit.ly/2433dues.

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 valuable work.

In the last 12 Months KC HELP has provided 4,467 items to 2,207 people totaling $1,301,810 in value, $1,639,787 when including hours and mileage.

Inception to date KC HELP has provided 11,556 items to 6,190 people totaling $3,480,070
in value, $3,946,089 when including hours and mileage.

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.

Pray for the health of John Ogilvie, Ellen Strickland, Mary Therese Bartlett, Leigh Bartlett, Julie Beer, Karen Behling, Tony DeCarlo, Larry Devlin’s sister-in-law Gloria Devlin, Gary Fahey, Jerry Goodwin, Steve Murray, Emmanual Rivas, Storm Smole, Nancy Rogers, Theresa Spiess, Bob Tomas, Glennyce Thomas, friend (fighting cancer) of John Rebar.

Please pray for our service men (particularly council members) and service women and our many KC HELP clients.

We also would like to keep Christina Lara and Gabby McCracken in our prayers as they fulfill their FOCUS missions.

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

Reminder: Membership Meetings

This is a reminder to attend our upcoming Membership Meeting on Tuesday evening, December 10th at 7:00 PM at the St. Peter’s Residence House in Suquamish. Our meeting next month will be held on Tuesday, January 14th.

We will discuss upcoming events and activities for the upcoming months. Thanks to everyone for all your support.

Our officers:

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

As you can see, we have several spots where there are no nominees. This is another area where we could use your help, specifically in filling one of these roles and more generally to come to the meeting and join us in electing our new officers.

Many thanks to Mark Maruda for accepting a nomination as Deputy Grand Knight and for Alan Arnesen for accepting a nomination as Trustee 2nd Year. Both will be voted upon during the upcoming December Membership Meeting on December 10.

Pancake Breakfast

On Sunday, December 1st, we held our monthly pancake breakfast with much success. We thank those who were able to help out during this event. Our next breakfast will be on Sunday, January 5th, which will be our first that will encompass both the 8:00 Mass and the 10:30 AM Mass. We will need extra help for setup that will begin at 6:30 AM, with serving at 9:00 AM, cleaning and re-setup at 10:30 AM, and serving and clean up at 11:30 AM. With sufficient help, we should be able to be finished with cleanup by about 1:30 PM. So, set your DVDs to record the Seahawks game and come join us during some or all of those phases. We need you!

Christmas Food Drive

We will be hosting a Christmas Food Drive at the Kingston Safeway on Saturday, December 14th, from 9:30 AM until 4:00 PM, benefiting our own St. Vincent de Paul organization at St. Olaf’s. They will use the proceeds for their Christmas Food Baskets. Any food that they are not able to use will be provided to Fishline. 

We were a little short-handed in our food drive for ShareNet and could have used a bit more help. Please consider joining us for some or all of one of the two shifts on December 14th by signing up at https://signup.com/go/KkwThZX.

Membership

We are planning a Charity, Unity, and Fraternity Exemplification for two new members who would like to join our Council on January 28th. Location is yet to be determined but it will be at either St. Peter’s or St. Olaf’s and will plan to gather at 6:30 PM and start the ceremony at 7:00 PM, followed by a short reception afterward. Stay tuned on location details as we get closer to the scheduled date.

Reminder:  Dues and Donations

As you may know, this is the time of the year when our Council collects our Membership dues. We ask you to consider making voluntary donations to our Washington State Council programs and our Council, regardless of your dues status.

For your convenience, we have several payment options:

• By check, made out to Knights of Columbus Council 8279 and either mailed to Larry Devlin at 15975 Lindsey Lane NE, Poulsbo, WA 98370 or personally delivered, e.g., at church or a Council meeting.
• By credit card using our form at https://bit.ly/8297dues or by via QR Code.
• By going to our Council’s website at www.kofc8297.org and clicking on the “Pay Your Council Dues” link on the right side of the page.
• By calling me at 360-981-3179 and providing your credit card info for Larry Devlin to input the payment information.

Pennies for Heaven is a fund that supports our Seminarians and encourages vocations. The goal is to give “a penny a day, a prayer a day” for this purpose. Our Council has contributed at least $3.65 per member each year for the past several years to this fund and we appreciate your generosity that allows us to continue to do so. Last year, our members contributed almost $500 toward the support of seminarians. Well done!

LAMB is a program that assists organizations in our local communities that serve those who are most in need, such as the homeless, the hungry, the disabled, the uneducated, and for pro-life. The State Council’s goal is that every member donate $18.82 per year for LAMB, commemorating the year 1882 when the Knights of Columbus was founded. We have rounded that up to $20. Last year, our members contributed almost $1,000 to this important fund and we thank you for that!

On behalf of the Council Officers, we would like to express our appreciation for your continued and timely payment of dues last year! As you know, your very nominal dues are needed for the Council to be able to in turn, pay our per capita obligations to both the Supreme Council and the Washington State Council. This keeps both you and the Council in “good standing” which means that all of our fraternal benefits remain in effect. Your dues are also important and essential contributions to the production of Columbia Magazine, which you receive each month, Catholic advertising, and for Culture of Life causes.

We also ask you to update your contact information and your next-of-kin details. You can do this online using this link https://bit.ly/8297updatecontact

If you are a 4th Degree Member, you may also pay you Assembly dues online at https://bit.ly/2433dues.

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 valuable work.

In the last 12 Months KC HELP has provided 4,165 items to 2,204 people totaling $1,316,590 in value, $1,651,623 when including hours and mileage.

Inception to date KC HELP has provided 11,255 items to 6,033 people totaling $3,403,860 in value, $3,857,139 when including hours and mileage.

Veterans Day

Our Assembly 2433 joined other Assemblies in the area to commemorate Veterans Day at the Kitsap Pavilion where we presented the U.S. Flag to open the ceremony.  One of the audience members happened to capture a video of the flag presentation. Use the QR Code below to view the video:

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 new Parish Family Priests Fr Mark Kiszelewski and Fr Albert Arulappan,

Pray for the repose of the soul of Tom Musha, and deceased Priests.

Pray for the health of John Ogilvie, Ellen Strickland, Mary Therese Bartlett, Leigh Bartlett, Julie Beer, Karen Behling, Tony DeCarlo, Larry Devlin’s sister-in-law Gloria Devlin, Gary Fahey, Jerry Goodwin, Steve Murray, Emmanual Rivas, Storm Smole, Nancy Rogers, Theresa Spiess, Bob Tomas, Glennyce Thomas, friend (fighting cancer) of John Rebar.

Please pray for our service men (particularly council members) and service women and our many KC HELP clients.

We also would like to keep Christina Lara and Gabby McCracken in our prayers as they fulfill their FOCUS missions.

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

Reminder: December Membership Meeting

This is a reminder to attend our upcoming Membership Meeting on Tuesday evening, December 10th at 7:00 PM at the St. Peter’s Residence House in Suquamish.

We will discuss upcoming events and activities for the months of December and January. Thanks to everyone for all your support.

Our officers:

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

As you can see, we have several spots where there are no nominees. This is another area where we could use your help, specifically in filling one of these roles and more generally to come to the meeting and join us in electing our new officers.

Pancake Breakfast for December

On Sunday, December 1st, we will be hosting our next monthly breakfast. We had tremendous support at our first two breakfasts from many Brother Knights and are extremely grateful to so many who made it such a great success after being shut down for over 4 years. It all worked out great! But, we need to do it again!

If you have an hour or so to help either in setting up and initial food prep that begins at 8:30 AM, or perhaps immediately after the 10:30 Mass to help serve breakfast, and/or to help clean up afterwards, which should be complete by about 1 PM so you won’t miss much football.. Set your video recorders and skip the commercials for when you get home.

Funeral Updates

Fr. Albert said Mass in remembrance and honor of all our departed Brother Knights on Friday, November 8th at 11:00 AM at St. Peter’s. We welcomed widows and family members for this special Mass, which was followed by a small reception afterward in the Parish House. Many thanks to Brother John Rebar for his leadership in getting this all set up, including hand-writing, addressing, and mailing over 60 invitations to the survivors of our Brother Knights. Plus, he and Martha also orchestrated the reception afterwards.

Finally, the funeral for Past Grand Knight and former Washington State Council Knight of the Year, Tom Musha, was held on Saturday, November 9th at St. Olaf’s Our 4th Degree Honor was present for the funeral.

Veteran’s Day

On November 11th, our Assembly joined with other Assemblies in the region to present the flag at the Veteran’s Day ceremony at the Kitsap County Fairgrounds Pavilion.

Thanksgiving Food Drive

We will be hosting a Thanksgiving Food Drive at the Kingston Safeway on Saturday, November 16th, from 9:30 AM until 4:00 PM, benefiting ShareNet in Kingston.

This will be our first food drive at a large grocery store with a lot more customer traffic so we expect that we’ll need more help than in the past. Please consider joining us for some or all of one of the two shifts by signing up at https://signup.com/go/DPUTKjd.

Dues and Donations

As you may know, this is the time of the year when our Council collects our Membership dues. We ask you to consider making voluntary donations to our Washington State Council programs and our Council, regardless of your dues status.

For your convenience, we have several payment options:

• By check, made out to Knights of Columbus Council 8279 and either mailed to Larry Devlin at 15975 Lindsey Lane NE, Poulsbo, WA 98370 or personally delivered, e.g., at church or a Council meeting.
• By credit card using our form at https://bit.ly/8297dues or by via QR Code.
• By going to our Council’s website at www.kofc8297.org and clicking on the “Pay Your Council Dues” link on the right side of the page.
• By calling me at 360-981-3179 and providing your credit card info for Larry Devlin to input the payment information.

Pennies for Heaven is a fund that supports our Seminarians and encourages vocations. The goal is to give “a penny a day, a prayer a day” for this purpose. Our Council has contributed at least $3.65 per member each year for the past several years to this fund and we appreciate your generosity that allows us to continue to do so. Last year, our members contributed almost $500 toward the support of seminarians. Well done!

LAMB is a program that assists organizations in our local communities that serve those who are most in need, such as the homeless, the hungry, the disabled, the uneducated, and for pro-life. The State Council’s goal is that every member donate $18.82 per year for LAMB, commemorating the year 1882 when the Knights of Columbus was founded. We have rounded that up to $20. Last year, our members contributed almost $1,000 to this important fund and we thank you for that!

On behalf of the Council Officers, we would like to express our appreciation for your continued and timely payment of dues last year! As you know, your very nominal dues are needed for the Council to be able to in turn, pay our per capita obligations to both the Supreme Council and the Washington State Council. This keeps both you and the Council in “good standing” which means that all of our fraternal benefits remain in effect. Your dues are also important and essential contributions to the production of Columbia Magazine, which you receive each month, Catholic advertising, and for Culture of Life causes.

We also ask you to update your contact information and your next-of-kin details. You can do this online using this link https://bit.ly/8297updatecontact

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 valuable work.

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 new Parish Family Priests Fr Mark Kiszelewski and Fr Albert Arulappan,

Pray for the repose of the soul of Tom Musha, and deceased Priests.

Pray for the health of John Ogilvie, Ellen Strickland, Mary Therese Bartlett, Leigh Bartlett, Julie Beer, Karen Behling, Tony DeCarlo, Larry Devlin’s sister-in-law Gloria Devlin, Gary Fahey, Jerry Goodwin, Steve Murray, Emmanual Rivas, Storm Smole, Nancy Rogers, Theresa Spiess, Bob Tomas, Glennyce Thomas, friend (fighting cancer) of John Rebar.

Please pray for our service men (particularly council members) and service women and our many KC HELP clients.

We also would like to keep Christina Lara and Gabby McCracken in our prayers as they fulfill their FOCUS missions.

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