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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, September 9th at 7:00 PM at the St. Peter’s Residence House in Suquamish. Our following meeting will be held on Tuesday, October 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 – 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

Breakfast is Back!

We have a slight change in plans for September! The parish has asked us to reschedule our September breakfast because of a conflict with the Parish Picnic and to coincide with the resumption of CCD classes on September 21st which is a departure from our normal 1st Sunday, at least for September.  We will settle into our usual 1st Sunday routine beginning on October 5th.

Please mark your calendars 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!

Parish Picnic

The St. Olaf’s Parish Picnic will be held on September 7th beginning after the 10:30 Mass. Our Council has been asked to help with with setup, food preparation, serving, and cleanup so please stay tuned as more details are provided to us but also please be prepared to assist in one or all of those phases of the picnic.

Tootsie Roll Drive

Save the Date: Our next Tootsie Roll Drive is scheduled for October 11th at the Kingston Safeway to benefit Special Olympics Washington and KC HELP. We will need about 9 men to make to staff three 2-hours shifts starting at 9:30 AM and continuing until 4 PM. Stay tuned for further details as we get closer to October 11th.

KC HELP Benefit at Kingston Youth Sports Association) Golf Tournament

Grand Knight Mark Maruda arranged a fundraiser for KC HELP where we were given a tee box sponsorship at the 2nd Annual KYSA (Kingston Youth Sports Association) Golf Tournament on  August 16th at White Horse Golf Club.  GK Mark Maruda, along with Nick Weber, Larry and Kathy Devlin, and Mike Slavin of Council 1379 were able to raise about $600 for KC HELP.

Scholarship Award

We were pleased to have been able to award our annual scholarship to Derek Wojcik. Derek is a recent graduate of O’Dea High School and is continuing his education at Gonzaga. We were especially thrilled to welcome him as one of the newest members of our Council. What a day for Brother Derek and our Council!

Charity, Unity, and Fraternity Exemplification

Kitsap County Fair Fundraiser

Special thanks to Brian Tucker, Mike Courtright, John Wahlfors and Larry Devlin for their service in selling parking tickets and directing traffic at the Kitsap County Fair from August 20 through August 24th. The weather was hot and the days were long but the effort was well worth it to raise funds for our scholarship and seminarian support. Thanks to everyone who made this possible!

Roadside Cleanup!

We are planning a roadside cleanup on Saturday, Sept 13th. We will meet in the St. Olaf’s parking lot at 9 AM and will carpool to the cleanup site.  It’s ideal if we have at least 8 members who can join in as it will make quick work of the project, allowing us to complete both sides of the highway in 1/2 mile increments and being completed before noon. Please join us if you can!

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 fact, we will likely be calling for a work party to help get caught up on a mass influx equipment that has overwhelmed our regulars. Stay tuned for for more details.

In the last 12 Months KC HELP has provided 5,034 items to 2,664 people totaling $1,467,735 in value, $1,910,867 when including hours and mileage.

Inception to date, KC HELP has provided 14,794 items to 7,905 people totaling $4,397,435 in value, $5,060,334 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!

Happy Birthday to all of these Brother Knights!

Knight of the Month

Brother Raul DeLuna is our Knight of the Month. If you were able to take part in our Council Dinner a couple of months ago, you will remember that Brother Raul was the Master Chef, and what a meal it was! Raul also led a team to work on the long overdue landscaping catch-up at St. Peter’s.  Thank you Raul for all you do for our Community, our Council, and our Parish!

Family of the Month

The Allen and Sheryl Beck family is our Family of the Month. Both are heavily involved in the Parish Family with Sheryl being recently selected to the Parish Family Advisory Council that will shape how our Parish Family comes together. Both are Eucharistic Ministers at St. Cecilia. Allen is a steady KC HELP volunteer working at our Bainbridge Island Service Center where he puts his F-18 maintenance skills to the test as he repairs the many wheelchairs, walkers, and other equipment that pass through while he works with the KC HELP clientele who need the services of KC HELP. Thanks to both Allen and Sheryl for all they do for the Parish Community, the Council, and our friends and neighbors in Kitsap County!

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.

We pray for the repose of the souls of Patty Jones (Brother Tony Jones’ wife) and Brother Knight Bob Ott.

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 Prayers for Wayne Pridgen (friend of Ric Rebar), John Wahlfor’s granddaughter Emily, Mike Gugeon (David Meiers’ friend),the McNally Family (Jim Bayer’s aunt), Bill Moriner, Jim Rebar, Nora Bell, Joe Bell’s wife, Steve Reichley’s son and daughter, Ellen Strickland, Mary Therese Bartlett, Leigh Bartlett, Julie Beer, 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, 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