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