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!
We are thrilled to announce that the Washington State Council recognized our Council as the Top Council in the entire State out of about 155 Councils! This came as a complete surprise, but after reflecting on it a bit, it really came about principally due to our amazing Priests, Fr Mark and Fr Albert who have been fully focused on bringing our Parish back to life and we were there to be a part of it. We are so grateful for their support. Also, we are extremely thankful for our newest members who have been such a key component of our comeback. We have a great cadre of future Council leaders in the wings who, I’m sure will make this Council a huge success in the coming years. Well done to all of you and thank you for all you do!
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.
Pancake Breakfast – On Break
Our Breakfasts are suspended during the summer until September 7th. Thanks to all who have been leading, supporting, and working our Breakfasts and we look forward to getting back into the swing of things in September. We really appreciate you! Special thanks to Leo Beer and Nick Weber for their leadership for this important ministry for our Parish!
Coffee and Donuts will continue on, led by Alan Arnesen, James Hopper, Mark Maruda, and Roy Behling. These gentlemen have done a tremendous job with this Parish-building effort. If you would like to lend a hand, please feel free to join them before and after Sunday Masses.
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 30th.
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