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The Knight's Shield - October 2019

Published on: Friday, September 27, 2019

As you visit church, the construction is in high gear. The building pad, foundations, underground utilities and the canopy extension work have all started. This results in the loss of use of our church social hall for about six months. The pantry is using about one-third of the hall. Another third will be for items from the storage room. The remainder is needed for construction of the new building addition. So as a reminder, our General Meetings are scheduled to be held at the JFK Council Hall located on 33320 Kelly Road starting with the October meeting. This means we will not be able to have any Pancake Breakfast or Euchre events until after Easter. We will probably also have to cancel our fish fry events. Our Planning Meeting will remain in the conference room at SPOT.

We recently helped out MCREST on Saturday September 7. The council received an urgent request to help MCREST just before our Labor Day weekend. Enough council members at our planning meeting stepped up to help so we didn’t send out a notice to the entire membership. We served dinner to about 60 men, women and children at St. Malachy. Thank you Ken Krause, Ron Marreese, Deacon Marc, Kevin and Tina Kennedy and especially Tom Gray for organizing and picking up most of the food and supplies.

The council participated in our Fall charity poker event at Ciccarelli’s. Thank you to Hank Leflere for again chairing this event, Bruce Arnold for handling the paperwork and Ray Coughlin for the financial support. Also for everyone who helped, especially George Loewen, Bruce Arnold, William Hill (2 days), Ted Czarny , Ralph Pullis, Dan Steele, Ken Krause, Kevin Kennedy, Hank (3 days) at Ciccarelli’s!

We had an excellent turnout for our Corporate Communion in September at the 9:30 Mass on September 15. We filled up all three reserved pews! Thank you to the five color corps members including Ken Grobbel and Vince Cusumano from our council, George Loewen & Rick Okerhjelm for lecturing, Gary Skarb & Geno Pirrami for being Acolytes and everyone who attended to celebrate Mass together with our Council Chaplain Father Jerry, Brother Deacon Marc and the rest of our parish family!

Please welcome our newest council members. Joseph Bohn, who transferred to our council at our September meeting. Nick Mazza attended the Admissions Degree on September 11 at St. Thecla with Ted Czarny as his sponsor.

Our Fall Road Clean-up has been scheduled for October 5. Meet in the church parking lot by 8am. Thank you Greg Csernai for organizing this event! See the newsletter article for more information.

There is also a Fall Book Sale Set Up on October 8 at the Main Branch of the Clinton Macomb Library across from church. See the article from Ken Krause in the newsletter for more information.

We will be having a membership drive during the first two weekends in October. Stay tuned for more details. Please renew your efforts to ask your Catholic brothers to consider joining the Knights. There is a Major Degree scheduled for Saturday morning on October 19. Our council has been awarded the Columbian/ Founder’s Combination Award for the 2018 -19 fraternal year. Let us reach our membership and insurance goals this fraternal year to make Star Council!

Please note that we still plan to have our annual Trunk or Treat on October 27. Set up at 1pm with a 2pm start. See the newsletter article for more information.

Make a note on the Calendar for the Memorial Mass at Sacred Heart on Sunday, November 10 at 10am. We have 7 of our council Brothers who have been called home by the Lord in the past year. (Will be ordering plaques and inviting their families to the Mass which is followed by a breakfast).

Please consider signing up to receive the Holy Family Statue at Mass in support of Vocations. The list is very short. We need some more families to sign up. Most importantly, our prayers are needed to support vocations! Please note that this is open to all families of the parish. Mention that to the people you sit next to at church. The binder is located in the church gathering space. Thank you!

Thank you to all of you who have been at the meetings regularly. Please consider calling someone you haven’t seen for a while and ask how they’re doing. See if they’re in need of a ride or friendly reminder when the next meeting takes place.

Vivat Jesus,
Mike Hartel

The Knight's Shield - September 2019

Published on: Friday, August 30, 2019

I am writing this report as the Labor Day weekend approaches, the schools are starting their fall classes and a new football season begins.

The council remained busy in August. We had our second annual council camping trip. This year was at Algonac State Park. There were more campers than last year. We had excellent weather and was nice to see the freighters plying the St. Clair River. The ladies rolled out their new ‘Ladies of the Knights’ shirts. Please contact Renee Gray to place your order. We had an excellent pot luck meal after attending Mass at St. Catherine’s. In the evening around the campfire, everyone seemed to take a turn with the bug zapper racquets! Consensus seemed to favor trying Lakeport next summer. Look for photos on our website.

Our Council Summer Picnic was on Saturday August 17 at Kurt B’s property in Clay Township. I was not able to attend the picnic, but I heard there was good weather and a very nice turnout. Thank you Steve Kargenian and Kurt Buhlinger for re-starting this event!

Be sure to review the calendar for upcoming fall events such as Corporate Communion and the DAVL Golf Outing in September with Trunk or Treat in October. There is also a Fall Book Sale Set Up on October 8 at the Main Branch of the Clinton-Macomb Library across from church. See article from Ken Krause in the newsletter for more information.

We will be having a membership drive in October. We were so close last fraternal year (July to June) to obtaining Star council. Renew your efforts to ask your Catholic brothers to consider joining the Knights. There is a Major Degree scheduled for Saturday morning on October 19.

Please note that due to construction at church starting up, the social hall will not be available until further notice. This means we will not be able to have any Pancake Breakfast or Euchre events until after Easter. We will probably also have to cancel our fish fry events. Our General Meetings are going to be relocated to the JFK Council Hall at 33320 Kelly Road, beginning with the October meeting. Our Planning Meeting will remain in the conference room at SPOT.

Please consider signing up to receive the Holy Family Statue at Mass in support of Vocations. The list is very short. We need some more families to sign up. The binder is located in the church gathering space. Thank you!

Thank you to all of you who have been at the meetings regularly. Please consider calling someone you haven’t seen for a while and ask how they’re doing. See if they’re in need of a ride or friendly reminder when the next meeting takes place.

Vivat Jesus,
Mike Hartel

The Knight's Shield - August 2019

Published on: Sunday, July 21, 2019

The council Ice cream social for the parish is scheduled (as I am writing my Grand Knight’s Report) this weekend with a heat wave in the weather forecast! Will make it easier to dip the ice cream! Thank you, Rick Okerhjelm, for chairing this event and everyone who helped setting up and taking down the tent, tables, chairs, serving and attending!

Phil Mularski and I attended the Summer Diocesan Meeting. The State is offering Quick Start Incentives for new council members: $10 July, $7.50 August, $5 September. The RTL petition drive is starting, need 400,000 signatures in 180 days and E-Membership was emphasized.

Tom Gray, Hank Leflere and I attended our first District 1 meeting which was a pretty good kick off for us. We discovered that District 1 does not have as many district wide events as District 24. Officer installation is a council event. Maybe next year we can make it a district event. So our council officer installation plans still need to be worked out. I will be working with the DD and the other Grand Knights to see if we can get District Corporate Communion scheduled for this fiscal year. Stay tuned!

One of our Council Brothers, George Trapp II, was called home to the Lord on July 14, 2019. Please remember George and his family in your prayers.

Here are some of our upcoming August events to place on your calendar:

There are still some sites available, so it is not too late to make your council camping trip reservations for 8/2 & 3 at Algonac State Park. Don’t have a camper. No problem, plan to join us for a pot luck dinner on Saturday August 3. See the flyer for more information.

Our Council Summer Picnic is on Saturday August 17 at Kurt Buhlinger’s property in Clay Township. Please see the flyer in the newsletter for more information. Thank you Steve Kargenian and Kurt Buhlinger for re -starting this event!

Be sure to review the calendar for upcoming Fall events such as Charity Poker, Corporate Communion, DAVL Golf Outing and Euchre Party in September.

If you need to take Protecting God’s Children, There is a class scheduled at St. Paul of Tarsus in October. You need to have taken this class to help with most of our council events.

Please consider signing up to receive the Holy Family Statue at Mass in support of Vocations. The list is very short. We need some more families to sign up. The binder is located in the church gathering space. Thank you!

Thank you to all of you who have been at the meetings regularly. Please consider calling someone you haven’t seen for a while and ask how they’re doing. See if they’re in need of a ride or friendly reminder when the next meeting takes place.

Vivat Jesus,
Mike Hartel

George Trapp has passed away he will be missed

Published on: Wednesday, July 17, 2019

We have lost another brother as George Trapp has passed away. George will truly be missed on Parish Council, in the Pantry and as a brother knight. Pleas say a prayer for his family as George leaves this earth for his heavenly reward! Here is a link to his obituary and arrangements. George Trapp Obituary

The Knight's Shield - July 2019

Published on: Tuesday, July 2, 2019

As we prepare to celebrate our Nation’s birthday and hopefully some nice Summer weather, these are some of the council events and updates since the release of our June newsletter.

Tom Gray and I attended the State Convention on May 23 to 25. All current State Officers ran unopposed and were re-elected. Not the drama of last year where two new officers were elected. The Special Olympics celebrated 50 Years (1968-2018) and Michigan was #1 in Division 1 States! Our Worthy Field Agent, Dale Jacks, was one of 3 State Award winners. The Fishing Equipment Basket from our council for the convention fundraiser was a hit! A couple of State events coming up is a Knights on Bikes Rally August 6-8 and the annual Tiger Day on September 21. See flyers for additional information.

One of our Council Brothers, Paul Ross, was called home to the Lord on May 25, 2019. Paul was a Knight for over 63 years. Please remember him in your prayers.

We had our Officer elections in May and provided you the updates in our June newsletter. We also have appointed positions which are primarily Directors. Here are the changes in our council Directors for the coming fiscal year starting July 1st. Taking over for Rick Okerhjelm as the Family Director is Ron Marrese. Thank you Ron, for agreeing to accept this position and thank you Rick, for the many years of being our Family Director. Leon Berdy will be assisting our Pro- Life Director Sal Ales in the coming year. Congratulations again to all new and returning officers and Directors. Thank you for your interest in helping run our busy council! I look forward to working with all of you. Also thank you to all outgoing officers and directors for your time and talent for your service to the council. Please note Officer/Director Training classes are available. On Saturday July 6th at St. Isidore, 8:30am Meal, Class 9 to Noon. Let me know if you plan to attend a workshop by July 1.

In case you have not heard, the State has redistricted our council. Starting July 1st, we will switch from District 24 to District 1. I would like to thank our Worthy District Deputy Gary Kopp for his service and the fraternity he has brought to our council! Our new District Deputy is Ernie Boulos. Ernie attended our June meeting. We look forward to working with and getting to know Ernie. In fact Ernie and his wife are planning to join us at our council camping trip in Algonac! The other councils in District 1 are St. Hubert, St. Peter and St. Thecla.

I would like to thank Rick Okerhjelm and Joe Kish for volunteering to run our Pancake Breakfast. Please help support our new chairman with this very important council event.

Our council helped support the church workshop for the “Called and Gifted” on Saturday June 22 with a continental breakfast. Ron Marrese reported that there were over 50 attendees at the workshop. Thank you Gino Gattari, Kevin Kennedy, Jeff Gapczynski and Stan Labuda for helping Ron with this event.

We had a nice turn out at our Summer Corporate Communion at the 7:45 Mass on June 23. We filled up all three reserved pews! Thank you to the six color corps members, George Loewen & Craig Thomson for lecturing, Gary Skarb & Gary Gozdielski for being Acolytes and everyone who attended to celebrate Mass together with our Council Chaplain Father Jerry!

Here are some of our upcoming Summer events to place on your calendar:

The council Ice cream social for the parish is scheduled for July 20 and 21 with the tent set-up on Friday evening. We will take the tent down after serving ice cream after the 11:30 Mass. Thank you, Rick Okerhjelm, for chairing this event.

There are still some sites available, so it is not too late to make your council camping trip reservations for August 2& 3 at Algonac State Park. Don’t have a camper? No problem...plan to join us for a pot luck dinner on Saturday August 2. See the flyer for more information.

Our Council Summer Picnic is on Saturday August 17 at Kurt Buhlinger’s property in Clay Township. Please see the flyer in the newsletter for more information. Thank you Steve Kargenian and Kurt Buhlinger for re-starting this event!

Please consider signing up to receive the Holy Family Statue at Mass in support of Vocations. The list is very short. We need some more families to sign up. The binder is located in the church gathering space. Thank you!

Thank you to all of you who have been at the meetings regularly. Please consider calling someone you haven’t seen for a while and ask how they’re doing. See if they’re in need of a ride or friendly reminder when the next meeting takes place.

Vivat Jesus,
Mike Hartel

The Knight's Shield - June 2019

Published on: Thursday, May 30, 2019

Please welcome our two newest council members: Joe Munn and Ryan Scratch. They both went through the Admission Degree here on April 27.

We had our council Road Clean-up on Saturday May 4. Over 20 men showed up and finished in about an hour! Thank you Greg Csernai for chairing and everyone who participated!

Also on May 4, we had over 50 players at our Spring Euchre Party. We raised $125 for Abigayle Ministries. Thank you to Tom and Renee Gray and Karla for helping me with this event.

We had good attendance from our council (both attendees and workers) at the DAVL dinner Sunday May 5 at DeCarlo’s.

Council members helped for the Special Olympics at MCC on May 8. Thank you to Joe and Joanne Phillips for chairing this event. Please see the Special Olympics Recap article.

The Memorial Mass for Brother Joe Roehrig was on May 11 at St. Paul of Tarsus. Thank you to all that attended especially the Lectors: Phil Mularski and George Loewen, Eucharistic Minister: George Trapp and Ushers: Tom Pardo and Phil Bonnette.

The election of council officers took place at our May meeting. These are your 2019-2020 Officers: Grand Knight: Mike Hartel; Deputy Grand Knight: Tom Gray; Chancellor: Steve Kargenian; Recorder: Rob Tusset; Treasurer: Ray Coughlin; Warden: Tony Guido; Inside Guard: Kevin Kennedy; Outside Guard: Gerry Vento; Advocate: Ken Krause; Trustee: Rick Okerhjelm. Congratulations! Thank you everyone who participated.

Our thanks to the outgoing officers who have shared their time and talents with the Council for their terms. Your service is appreciated by all.

Unfortunately we needed to cancel our Spring Pancake Breakfast. I would like to thank our most recent Pancake Breakfast Chairmen: Phil Kwasny, Ralph Pullis and Steve Kargenian for their time and talents. We really need someone else to step up other than our previous chairmen to chair or co-chair this event. The bulk of the effort is coordinating the food and kitchen supplies. Our next event is scheduled for 10/6. Please consider volunteering for this very important position.

Our charity for the breakfast was Gianna House. We have a resolution for a $1000 donation in lieu of the pancake breakfast proceeds. Bruce Arnold and I attended the Grand Opening of Gianna House on 5/3.

As I am writing this report our two delegates are preparing to travel to the State Convention on May 23 to 25. Thank you to the council for helping support our delegates!

Here are some of our upcoming Summer events to place on your calendar:

Council Corporate Communion on June 23 at the 7:45 Mass.

The council Ice cream social for the parish is scheduled for July 20 and 21 with the tent set-up on Friday evening.

Make your council camping trip reservations for 8/1 & 2 at Algonac State Park or plan to join us for a pot luck dinner on Saturday August 2.

Council Summer Picnic/BBQ on Saturday August 17 at Kurt Buhlinger’s property in Marine City. Additional information will be announced as details become available. Thank you Steve Kargenian, for restarting this event and to BK Kurt for the offer to host our council.

Please consider signing up to receive the Holy Family Statue at Mass in support of Vocations. The list is very short. We need some more families to sign up. The binder is located in the church gathering space. Thank you!

Thank you to all of you who have been at the meetings regularly. Please consider calling someone you haven’t seen for a while and ask how they’re doing. See if they’re in need of a ride or friendly remind-er when the next meeting takes place.

Vivat Jesus,
Mike Hartel

The Knight's Shield - May 2019

Published on: Wednesday, April 24, 2019

We have just celebrated Easter Sunday and are beginning to look forward to summer.

Looking back at the past month, this is typically the busiest time of the year for our council.

Our Fry-Day Fish dinners have been more popular than ever thanks to your hard work and welcoming spirit. This is the biggest fundraiser for our council charities. I especially want to thank Ray and Lorri Coughlin and Rick Okerhjelm who put in countless hours for our six fish Fri-Days! It would be impossible to list everyone who helped out, so I will list most of the tasks and you will begin to understand that we had a total team effort to accomplish these events: Purchasing the food and supplies; on Tuesday evening, we began to thaw the fish on trays in the refrigerators; mac & cheese and coleslaw prep started around 7am every Friday; also, dining room table set up, carry out, beverage, cake and order tables. In the kitchen, we needed to pull out the oven after making the mac & cheese, set up the fryers, butterfly the fish for the grill and the rest of the kitchen prep for cooking. Then we have the actual event of cooking and serving from 4 to 7. We are averaging around 500 dinners in these 3 hours! After 7pm, we start the clean-up. The dining room area needs to done by 8pm, but we also have a crew who stays until about 9pm every Friday to finish the dishes, kitchen cleanup and take out the garbage. Thank you everyone for your help and support!

We had our charity poker event in early April over four evenings from 7pm to 2am at Ciccarelli’s. Thank you Hank who chaired the event and worked each night! Thank you also to, Stan Labuda and William Hill who worked two nights and to Larry Bukowski, Ralph Pullis and John Moceri who each worked one evening. Thank you, Ray Coughlin who handled the finances. Well done! Next tournament is in September also at Ciccarelli’s.

Our annual Easter Egg hunt went very well. We had a good turnout (~80 Children) and nice weather. Thank you to Rich & Lisa Miller/Ray & Lorri Coughlin for chairing the event, Bill Giezyng (Easter Bunny) and to everyone who helped!

Thank you to Jerry Hund for chairing the Easter Ham and Kielbasa fundraiser again this year and to all those who helped with the two order weekends after Masses and those who helped with the unloading and distribution before Easter.

Thank you to Co-Chairs John Minicuci, Ray and Sheryl Ignatowski and all the council members and their families for their contribution to our Annual MIDrive (Tootsie Roll). This is a very worthy cause for those with intellectual and developmental disabilities in our community.

The first round of nominations for council officers took place at our April meeting. The second round of nominations and elections will be at our May council meeting. The April nominations were: Grand Knight: Mike Hartel; Deputy Grand Knight: Tom Gray; Chancellor: Steve Kargenian; Recorder: Rob Tusset; Treasurer: Ray Coughlin; Warden: Tony Guido & William Hill; Inside Guard: Leon Berdy & Kevin Kennedy; Outside Guard: Gerry Vento; Advocate: Ken Krause & Dave Wisneski; Trustee: Rick Okerhjelm, Tom Pardo & Ken Krause.

I just received a notice from the family of BK Giuseppe Riera. Giuseppe was called home by the Lord on January 21, 2019. Giuseppe was a Knight for over 46 years! Please include BK Giuseppe in your prayers.

Thank you to all of you who have been at the meetings regularly. Please consider calling someone you haven’t seen for a while and ask how they’re doing. See if they’re in need of a ride or friendly reminder when the next meeting takes place.

Vivat Jesus,
Mike Hartel