Grand Knight's Report:

Dear Brothers:

From the messy, cluttered desk of your Worthy Grand Knight….

Greetings, Brother Knights and faithful readers!

I decided to leave the above opening as is, with the exception of dropping the word Deputy. Vinnie, that’s all yours! Welcome too it, and thanks for the

knowledge that every time I turn around, there you are! And to the Past Grand Knight, Steve, I know you are right next to him for anything I need as well.

To the new Officers who have moved up a chair, and to all those just taking a seat, welcome and hang on, it is going to be quite a ride! Ditto for Program Directors. As Vince has been saying for a while, we need more of you to fill some open spots and to take the reigns from some moving on. We have gotten some new faces in a few spots that you know about, chiefly, Rick Kendzior taking on Membership. And thanks, Bill Bransley, for all you did. It is a hard job and sometimes thankless, but one desperately needed if we are to continue. We will be announcing further changes as we go along.

Some things I don’t know about yet. Worthy financial Secretary Dick Campobello, the rock of this Council, my right hand in all things in the kitchen and financial, and a true friend, is still an unknown. I was at the house the other night and Lenore was pretty upbeat. He is making some improvements but nowhere out of the woods. I picked up some of the paperwork, and as she said, “Whatever you do, DON’T MESS IT UP! When he comes back, and if he does that job again and it is messed up, you are in trouble!” that is kind of a paraphrase there, but we get the point. I have spoken with someone who may be wiling to take on that spot, at least temporarily. We will see what happens. In the mean time, PRAY and PRAY some more.

But the new Fraternal Year has started and marches on. What a BANG we started with on the Fourth of July Weekend! From our standpoint, it was a major success. We will put almost $10,000.00 into the bank from it. But more importantly, I had several long talks with the President of the Gala, and was assured that, as long as WE want it, it is ours! Yes, things change, but we need to keep a positive attitude in everything. There were a few bumps and glitches in the Gala, but we held our ground and it worked. I can never thank Jim Punda enough for his part in it. Every second I was there, he was there, often before me. More on that in another article.

Corn Boil is coming up. Then the annual Jack Venezia Golf Outing, then the MH / Tootsie Roll Drive. Then the Columbus Day Pasta Dinner. And Christmas Trees. And the Polish Dinner. And the Major Degree. And St. Pat’s Dinner. All of these are major events that we undertake each year and are responsible for money being brought into the Council to fund our Charitable work.

And there are things we do that do not contribute dollars, but are equally important to us and to those we help. Like the Blood Drives. And the Pads Dinners. And the Youth activities. From Basketball and Soccer Challenges that give them a little fun and some bragging rights, and on to scholarships. To joining with kindred spirits from across the country and around the world for World Youth Day, the March for Life, and First Call. These are events we are called upon to help fund, and that some of our own sons and daughters participate in. All of these things take time and effort and money. But TIME, EFFORT and MONEY are what we are all about. Maybe that is a new slogan of by-word for the Council.  Wow, talk about scary! I just looked at that… Time, Money and Effort … T.E.A.M. … seriously.. that was not planned or thought about.. it was just there. That just sent a chill up my spine. Somebody is watching… In the bottom of our hearts we all know that, but like me, I’m sure most of us won’t talk about that.. or say it out loud. 

So, anybody want to join our T.E.A.M.? Anybody want to bring in someone new to join? Let’s see what we can do to make this a great year. Read everything in this and every (Award Winning!) Knight Life  newsletter and figure out where we fit in. How we can help, what we can contribute. We need to be more active. All of us. We need to re-start our Squires program to get our sons involved. We need to start a Knight’s Ladies Auxiliary. We need leaders for them, and we need workers, and we need to all join the T.E.A.M.        

Peace, and see you around.       

Vivat Jesus! 
John Stefani
Grand Knight,
Fr. McCormick Council 3880
jstefani44@aol.com

Deputy Grand Knight's Report:

Deputy Grand Knight’s Rants and Raves.

August is upon us already. The Crystal Lake gala was a success from our point of view. The help John and Jim got is a testament to them both. If you’ve ever run an event, you know how hard it is to get volunteers to fill all the positions necessary. John and Jim did just that feat. See the article above written by our worthy Grand Knight for some details on the event.

Remember July 27^th is the Family mini golf outing at 1 pm. let’s have the same show of force at Lippold park for this event.

The MR\ LD or Tootsie Roll drive is in full swing. PGK, John Orso & Ted Duda will have sign up sheets at the August meeting. The drive will be held September 19^th & 20^th. Two hour shifts will be available from 7-9 on Friday and 7-7 on that Saturday. Please sign up before all the good spots are taken. We run this event with the St. Elizabeth Ann Seaton council and many of the organizations we give the money to from the drive.

September 12 is the Annual Jack Venezia Memorial Golf Outing starting at 8:00 a.m. Please sign-up for this event. If you can’t get a foursome together come by yourself. The golf outing committee will place you in a foursome. I can’t think of a better way to get to know some of your brother knights that you usually don’t get to see or talk with that often.

The directorships of the council have been filled, thank you to all the brothers who stepped forward to fill these most important positions. Pete Harren has taken the church director. PGK, Phil Weyna will take over as the pro-life director for part of the year. Steve Star is the new council director and Chris Krambeer is the new youth director.

Kevin Scanlon retains his roll as the family director and Mike Chmiel is the new community director.

The corn boil is scheduled for August 30^th  please sign-up to help with this event.

The next day on the August 31^st is a 5^th Sunday memorial Mass at 9:00 let’s have a heavy showing for this Mass. Labor Day weekend is a good time to stop and remember our fellow brothers who have died.

Remember too August 15 is a Holy Day of Obligation. This is the solemnity of The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary don’t forget to go to Mass that day.

The day before on the 14^th we celebrate the memorial of the Saint Maximilian Kolbe.

He was born on January 7 1894 and died August 14 1941 by lethal carbonic acid injection after three weeks of starvation and dehydration at the Auschwitz, Poland death camp. His body burned in the ovens and ashes scattered.  He is the patron saint of the pro-life movement. Someone we have on our team to help us with our prayers for divine guidance on this most important subject.

See you all at the business on August 5^th. Rosary is said at 7:30 in the church and the meeting begins at 8:00. John promised the meeting will only be an hour long.

Vivat Jesus

DGK, Vince Esposito
VPEsposito@comcast.net 

Chancellor's Report:

Wow!!  Finishing up the newsletter this month, something struck me. We participate! That is an awesome statement to say about this Council. We had so much news to pass along that a few columns needed to be eliminated (Computer / Confuser Corner) and 2 that were submitted by 3 Year Trustee, PGK, Steve Haugh. For that I apologize. They will return and be published.

I also want to thank our new Program Directors for Fraternal Year 2008-2009:

• Church (Pete Harren)

• Community (Mike Chmiel)

• Pro-Life (PGK, Phil Weyna)

• Council (Stephen Starr)

• Youth (Chris Krambeer)

• Family (Kevin Scanlan

But, we still need a Publicity Director. Call or e-mail me at (815) 455-2765—THicklin@aol.com.

Also, for members in arrears we will be contacting you because “WE WANT YOU BACK!”

Again, please feel free to contact me or Rick Kendzior—rekendzior@aol.com—to get information to become current.

Membership Report:

‘Follow Me – Help Us Build
Up the Church’

The theme for our 2008-2009 fraternal years’ membership campaign follows the charge from the Holy Father’s visit to North America. As Supreme Knight Carl A. Anderson said, “We live out our Christian witness as the Holy Father has called us to do.” We do that by witnessing to love in every aspect of our lives — from our families, to our work, to the charitable projects we undertake Orderwide.  And, he added, we do this by asking qualified Catholic men to join us and help us strengthen our Church.

We as Knights need to actively recruit others to join our ranks. To grow in membership we must personally ask every eligible Catholic man to join the Order. Recruiting new members is essential to the growth of our council and the strength of the Order.

Sometimes, the hardest thing about recruiting is taking the first step. Recruiting a new member can be as easy as asking him to join. Amazingly, many individuals haven't joined the Knights simply because they have never been asked to join. When the opportunity arrives, take the initiative and start a conversation with a potential prospect. It’s the first step for recruiting on a one-on-one basis and can yield very positive results. 

Recruiting on the personal level helps the potential member understand that you are not looking for numbers as much as you are looking for individuals like him. Let him know that he is not only wanted as a member, but that his membership can take all aspects of his life to new levels.

Remember, there are a lot of qualified Catholic men just wanting to be asked to join. Now is the time to take your first steps toward offering these men membership in the Knights of Columbus.

Rick Kendzior
rekendzior@aol.com

4th Degree Report:

Bishop Boylan Assembly 0198 4^Th Degree Update. Greetings Sir Knights and Worthy Brother Knights of Council 3880 and all of our faithful readers!

The Assembly did not have a July business Meeting, as we had our Installation of Officers for the new Fraternal Year on Friday, July 18, 2008.

This was Sacred Heart Church in Marengo (the New Faithful Navigator’s home parish) with a dinner afterwards. Sorry if you didn’t come, it was a nice time (I think, since I am writing this on July 11^th, and you will get it about a week after the event!).

We will have our next meeting at Holy apostles in August, the second Wednesday of the month, which will be the 13^th. 3.880’s Worthy Warden, Mike Jasinski, is the new Faithful Scribe, so come on out to the meeting and talk a lot!!

Mitchell Assembly 0215 from DeKalb will be hosting a 4^th Degree Exemplification on Saturday, October 18, 2008, right here in Crystal Lake, at the Holiday Inn. What a perfect time for those of you who were not able to make it last October, or who became #rd Degree at our Major Degree last February. The normal requirement is to have been a 3^rd Degree Member, in Good Standing, for one year, but I can get waivers for those with less time in the 3^rd. Please see me or give me a call. I am hoping for another 4 to 6 of you to become 4^th Degree this year. And being so, close, it is very convenient. We will also have the Saturday Exemplification Mass here at St. Thomas again, as I have cleared it with the Monsignor. So come and see me for a blue Form 4.

Please visit our web-site as well for additional info. http://www.maxpages.com/bba198

Peace!      

SK John Stefani,
Faithful Comptroller,
Bishop Boylan Assembly 0198
JStefani44@aol.com

Gala Update:

2008 Crystal Lake Gala a Mixed Success, but a Success None the Less!

As I pointed out in the e-mail blast I had sent out the next day, to those of you whose e-mail address we have, WE DID IT!!! By that I meant that we did the job and poured the beer and even did the age check for alcohol wristbands, put them on the partygoers and sold the tokens. I think that was as hard as actually pouring the beer! We had a number of people who spent a lot of time, many over them over several days, doing that part. It is the less glamorous part, but critical to our overall success. As I am sure most know by now, the Lions opted out of participating in the Gala this year, so I received a phone call several weeks before the event and was offered both jobs.

Since we are at a point where income is getting harder to come by, in spite of an ever increasing need for funds to help those less fortunate, we needed to collectively jump at the chance. And did.

Jim Punda and I have talked about the ability to do both jobs for several years now, and last year during a lull we even figured out how we could do it. So when the opportunity came, it was a no-brainer to say yes, we could do it. That, however, is a little different than actually doing it. For the most part, it was a normal 3880 event, tons of people, most of the time, to get the job done, having fun , no problems! We did get slammed a little Saturday evening, when we did have less than a full crew. We ended up with 3 or 4 Gala people in the booth helping out. Not that we ever had big lines, a few people waiting across the entire front. But it was busy. It happened that at the time I had two of our best tappers sitting at a table doing wristbands and tokens, while Jim and I were out in the crowd doing the same. It was kind of funny that we always complained about those ‘other guys’ not being out there enough selling tokens, when we got hit the same way. We needed more out in the crowd and manning both tables when it was busy. And for the most part, we had a lot of the crew volunteer to go out in place of us. But, it never got critical, we just did a little more running. We had so many people show up, Brother Knights and FAMILY and FRIENDS, who just worked and worked, and then worked some more because we needed the help. You always want to name names, but as has been pointed out, you have to be careful to not miss one, so I am not going to name them now… come to the meeting and we can all give a big rousing hand to those that showed up!

And guys, it wasn’t that short… just 3 or 4 more people during those really busy hours and it would have been the normal cake walk. We just need to push a little more… we being me, as the Event Chair along with Jim Punda, and me again as the GK now. Okay, enough of the couple of negatives.

The Gala itself had a few ‘growing pains’ being a new venue, but overall they were extremely happy with the Knights. Ecstatic may be a better word. The president of the Gala stated several times that we have the beer tent AND the wristbands/tokens as long as we want them. So, as I said before, we are looking at around $9,000.00 for our efforts. What a fantastic event this turned into this year. To put it in perspective we poured just under 130 barrels of beer over the four days… as opposed to the approximately 185 barrels in the past, in three days last year. So you see, if we had he crowds from years before we could have had a problem. So his turned out to be a blessing in disguise. We now know how to better plan for next year. 

We again had guys who never or seldom make a Business Meeting, due to work and family, but do show up to make sure this works. They do it for the T.E.A.M.

(Okay, there is that new catch phrase again!).

Next year the Gala will have worked out the problems with parking and shuttle busses and pricing… so mark your calendars right now!  July 3, 4 and 5, 2009!

That is Friday, Saturday and Sunday! Plan to come out and help us earn some much needed money for the Council’s charitable works. Remember … T.E.A.M. … Time Effort and Money … cause that is what makes the Council so powerful … all of us working together for the benefit of those who need our help. See you there soon, and see you next year at Lippold! 

Thanks and Vivat Jesus, 

John