Grand Knight’s Blog – May 2021

Next Meeting

Date:      Tuesday, May 11, 2021
Time:      7:30 p.m.              
Place:     Zoom Video Conference.

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Activities and News Since Last Meeting

• Deceased Brother.
  Ralph Burg, a 4^th degree Knight who moved to Marlboro from Pawley’s Island, S.C. died recently. His funeral was April 17^th at St. Matthias and the McSweeney Assembly was able to provide an honor guard and the family was deeply appreciative.
• Fr. Adriano’s Farewell
  On May 2^nd, we brewed and served 200 cups of coffee for the farewell send-off for Fr. Adriano Albino de Castro who is now on his way to a new mission in Brazil. Fr. Adriano made a big impact during his time at I.C. and we were happy to join in the effort to celebrate and thank him for his time here.  Thanks to Mike Gibson, Mike Cahill and Rafael Johnson for helping out.

• Covid Recovery Project.
  Supreme has announced a Covid Recovery Program which allows us, if permitted by state law and our parish venues, to resume in person meetings after July 1^st with obvious precautions. Of course, we are off duty until September, but that means we could be having normal meetings starting in the fall. It will, of course require some special precautions such as spacing and masks, and coordination with I.C., but I am optimistic we are on track for the September meeting to be live and in person.
• Reviving Council #131.
  An initiative has been started to resurrect Council #131 from St. Michael’s in Hudson which has been dormant about 25 years. The State officer in charge has given them the go-ahead but they will require 20 active members for revival. I know they could raise 5 right off that bat who are members of Council #81, and while we don’t want to lose them, we also should appreciate that an active Council next door would be beneficial for us and we could probably collaborate on events and programs. On the other hand, I think it will be difficult for them to find the requisite 20 members   So we have a Plan B. See Roundtables, below.
• “Roundtables”
  At the Grand Knight’s training convention in Fitchburg two years ago, we were introduced to a new initiative being promoted by Supreme called “Roundtables”. A Roundtable is a sub-group of a Council organized around a common interest. It has been tried in many areas to allow ethnic groups to form within a larger Council. For example, a Spanish language group.   It has also been used successfully to organize groups around different parishes within a Collaborative. In our case, it might make sense to form a Spanish Roundtable and a Brazilian/Portuguese Roundtable to accommodate the ethnic, cultural and language interests; and also a St. Matthias Roundtable and a St. Michael’s Roundtable to keep a visible presence in those locations and a closer relationship with the Pastors, and other people involved in the ministries there. The Roundtable members would still be members of Council #81, and still attend our meetings, but they could have separate meetings to organize events and business within their Roundtable. A Roundtable leader would report to our general business meetings, and we would all support each other at events and programs as one Council. I was impressed with the idea at the time of the convention, and I think now is the time we should start formalizing it. If anyone is interested in being the Roundtable Leader for St. Matthias, St. Mike’s, the Spanish Roundtable, or the Brazilian/Portuguese Roundtable, let me know.
• Raffle Tickets.
  If anybody wants or needs State raffle tickets, please let me know. I have them in my office, you can swing by even if I’m not there, my secretary Kim can take care of you.

Programs and Upcoming Events

• Ultrasound Initiative
  Kari Corda, the director of an organization called First Concern in Marlboro, reached out to us with respect to purchasing an Ultrasound machine for their facility on Bolton Street (the old Police Station, side entrance). I located the state chairman of that program, Andy Vail from Sudbury, whom many of you will remember was our DD about 5 years ago.  Andy provided me with program literature from Supreme and essentially it is this: if a pregnancy counselling center become licensed to provide diagnostic services to expecting women as part of their program, Supreme will pay half the cost of the Ultrasound machine if a local Council raises the funds for the other half. There is a variant where Supreme will pay 100% of the Ultrasound machine cost if the local council funds a vehicle for a mobile installation. Steve Thomas gave me a report on such a mobile unit being funded by his Council in Florida, but in general terms, that type of device works best in rural areas. First Concern has two offices, one in Marlboro and one in Clinton. Fr. Steven reached out to me to endorse the project and especially pointed out his personal knowledge of some of the people involved and the merits of their work. These machines can run from $40,000 to $150,000, with the average being about $70,000, although I think the small diagnostic clinics will favor the more inexpensive units. So this could be a significant investment in fundraising for us, but also a significant step in promoting life. I told Kari we are interested in supporting this and asked her to start shopping. She is working with their ultrasound technician to get prices. We have not committed to anything as yet, and I will present more details to the Council for a formal vote when we have concrete numbers. If anybody is interested in helping organize the fundraising effort, please let me know.
• Nominations and upcoming Elections.
  The Nomination Committee has submitted a report on eligible and willing candidates for the June Elections as follows:

If anybody is interested in the Chancellor job, please let me know. I promise there is no heavy lifting involved. Thanks to Mike Fallon and Neil Cronin for soliciting the nominations. Thanks also to everybody who volunteered for another term. With luck, the next year should be more productive for us.

• State Golf Outing
  Friday, June 25^th in Westminster. $90 per player. Let me know if you are interested, I have the enrollment forms.

Other Meeting Agenda Items

• Prayers / Intentions:
• Carole Avey.
  Our deceased brother Cliff Avey’s sister, Carole, is in hospice.  Please keep her in your prayers.
• Steve Thomas Update
• I chatted with Steve Thomas and he reports his treatment was going successfully and his next event is a full body PET scan, which was supposed to happen four days ago, and could be his final challenge.  I haven’t heard yet, but if the PET Scan was clean, he will be sent home essentially for follow-up and monitoring. If not, he will face more serious treatment, but his attitude is good and he’s strong and has a stubborn disposition, so I am optimistic for him. He promised a more detailed report which I will forward when I hear more.
• Other business? If you have an item to add to the agenda, please let me know.
• News?   If you have any news to report, email GrandKnight@kofcmarlboro.org.

See you all tonight on Zoom.

Vivat Jesus.

 Mike Tremblay, Grand Knight