Grand Knight’s Blog
November 2021
Special Edition
Next Meeting:
Date: Tuesday, November 9, 2021
Time: 6:30 p.m. Social Hour this month to meet new members!
7:30 p.m meeting . . . – see below
Place: I.C. Lower Church
Method: Live and in person
· New Members
We have received notification that several new members have joined online, and indicated they reside in Marlboro or Hudson, or elsewhere nearby. However, they are not automatically enrolled in a council by online membership. Mike Wells and I have reached out to each of them by email or phone and invited them to join our next council meeting. We look forward to meeting them and welcoming a few into Council #81.
· New Member “Meet and Greet.”
In light of the six or so new members without a council affiliation yet, and the six or so prospective members we met at the St. Mike’s picnic, we will hold a “Social Hour” starting at 6:30 p.m. before our next regular Council meeting. We will have some pizza and other snacks and refreshments and invite all the new members and prospects to join us and get to know each other. Please plan to arrive early and meet the new members and prospects.
· Bring a Friend
Since we are welcoming new members and prospects, it would be a perfect opportunity to reach out to that neighbor or co-worker and invite him to the meeting.
· Come to the meeting and help us get back to work!
Okay, we got sidelined by the pandemic. But now its time to get back to work. Come to the meeting and re-introduce yourself to your brothers, and let us know what’s been going on and help us identify programs you would like to participate in.
· Holiday and New Year Agenda
The holidays are coming, and all our pending programming will be wrapping up soon. We need ideas on what to do after the New Year. Put on your thinking caps and let us know at the next meeting what direction you think we should be headed. The Supreme Council has some great ideas on the website:
https://www.kofc.org/en/what-we-do/faith-in-action-programs/faith/index.html
Please visit that site and browse the array of programs we can run with materials and resources available from Supreme. State Program Director Mike Gibson will be at the meeting to discuss some options in detail. Here are a few:
Faith Programs:
Support of Vocations (seminarians, deacons, etc.)(we have already “adopted” a seminarian, but perhaps we might want to adopt another and keep in communication with him and see what needs we might assist him with)
Rosary sessions (we did this online during the pandemic, perhaps we could organize a regular annual event, say in the weeks before Easter?)
Literature kiosk (we were working on this when the pandemic struck. Anybody want to get it re-started?)
Spiritual Reflection (prayer hour, etc.)(We already have a Cenacle group meeting at I.C., perhaps we could join together and support them more directly and participate.
Family Programs:
Family of the Month/Year (work with your pastor to identify a family worthy of special recognition, or spotlight a different family each month to get people better acquainted)
Family Prayer Night (organize a prayer group for families with a communal dinner afterward) (kids are a powerful unifying force – perhaps this would be a good way to get our English, Spanish and Portuguese speaking families to get to know each other better)
Family Week (organize a series of events for participating families to engage in for a special week once each year, such as pre-Easter)
Good Friday Family Promotion (organize some special events around the Easter Triduum for family participation)
Community Programs
Helping Hands (organize a network to support people in need in our community that is going unserved) (we already have Knights and spouses visiting nursing homes – perhaps we can expand on that!)
Soccer Challenge (very much like the Free Throw Championship, any soccer people out there?)
Hockey Challenge (ditto!)
Life Programs
Novena for Life (organize a novena, i.e. nine days of prayer, for Life. This might help unify the various groups in our parishes and community already working in this area to help us work better together)
March for Life (organize people from our parishes to participate in a local march, or organize a bus trip to the national march in Washington)
Special Olympics (our brother DD Rich Pulice has some ideas coming up which he will discuss)
Mass for People with Special Needs (organize a Mass and invite families and groups with children with special needs, where we can pray together and network parishioners who want to get involved and help out)
Christian Refugee Program (promote awareness of at-risk Christians in the Middles East and elsewhere facing genocide)
Pregnancy Center Support (help network the pregnancy support organizations in our community and help organize support for them – maternity supplies, etc.)
All of these programs have ready-made promotional literature materials available from Supreme.
Obviously, we can’t do all of them, but we can do a few. Which ones interest you and which ones would you volunteer to help us organize and run?
· Other meeting agenda items
If you have any news to report, know of any brothers or friends in need, email GrandKnight@kofcmarlboro.org for inclusion in the November Grand Knight’s Blog and the meeting agenda.
Vivat Jesus.
Mike Tremblay, Grand Knight