Brother Knights,

Our next meeting will be Monday, December 15^TH in the PLC.  Food will be served at 7:00, and the meeting will begin at 7:30 PM.  

Don’t forget our Family Christmas Party is this Sunday at 1:30 in the PLC.  If you have not already RSVP’d, please let John Meurer know (jmeurer@ndacademy.org)

A big thank you to goes out to everyone who braved the cold last weekend to help serve Champaign after the Holiday Pops concert.  The Music Ministry and the Johns Creek Symphony put on a tremendous concert yet again.

At our last meeting (12/1) there was a lot of business discussed.  We voted and agreed to give Fr. Paul, Fr. Hieu, Fr. Carlos, Fr. Steven, and Joy Christmas Gifts of $200 for the priests and $100 for Joy.  The money for these gifts will be transferred from our savings account.  This is our traditional way to say thank you for all they do for us during the year.  We also agreed to help the Girl Scout troop at NDA by buying 50 boxes ($175) of cookies to be sent to our troops.  We will again be helping support St. Vincent De Paul by providing 16 turkeys that can be donated to families in need this Christmas.  Andrew Martin has volunteered to work with Joe Noa to set up a Fraternal Benefits night for our Council.  With the passing of 3 of our Knights the past few months, the importance of insuring your self and family was elevated.  We also discussed the need to set up a Relief Fund to help our members in need.  I will be reviewing our By Laws and will work with the trustees to propose changes to ensure we have funds set aside, and to create the guidelines for how the money should be disbursed.  More details will follow in the New Year. 

With the passing of Phillip Nacy, we need to fill the Advocate roll he worked in for many years.  At the meeting, we will be opening the floor for nominations and voting to fill the post.  If you are interested in being nominated for Advocate, please let me know.

This Saturday (12/13) is Crazy Bingo Night.  Angelo Sampona has coordinated many Knights to help out.  Please talk to Ang if you need to know when you need to be there ((770) 476-9236 or kasdf@aol.com)

We are honored to be hosing the Our Lady of Charity Icon at St. Benedict the 13th through the 17th.  There will be a Rosary on Saturday at 6:30 PM in the church, and a Prayer service on the 16th at 7:30 PM.  Please try to attend one or both of these activities.  Both are open to the parish.

We are having a lot of success this year with our magnet sales.  Vince has done a great job coordinating coverage at all the masses, and he could not do this without all your support and participation.  We will continue selling the next 2 weekends.  Lets keep pushing these hard, and don’t forget to sell them to your friends, co-workers, neighbors, family, etc.  I have a stack on my desk at work and have sold about 12 so far just by people seeing them when they walk by. 

On January 20^th, we will be hosting a 1^st Degree at St. Benedict.  Rick Ooten, who serves as our Warden on the Degree Team, is unable to make it that night.  We need someone who would be willing to learn the role to fill in for him.  This leads to the need we have for alternates at all of the positions for the team.  If you are currently 2^nd Degree or higher and would like to be part of the team as an alternate, please let me know.  Below is the current list of roles:

We have also been contacted by our District to recruit 3 members of our Council who are interested in participating in the new 2^nd Degree Team for our District.  Vin O’Reilly, PGK at St. Brendan Council is forming the team.  He is asking each Council to recruit 3 members of your Council to join our team and provide him with their names, phone numbers and email addresses so that we can start rehearsals in January.  Our goal will be to get the team certified by March 7.  Once established, the team will conduct one Second Degree exemplification per year at each Council for a District total of 5 per year including 1 for the Southern Catholic College Council. The Degrees will be conducted on Saturday mornings and scheduled to allow for our new Second Degree Brothers to proceed rapidly to the State conducted Third Degree exemplifications.  If you are interested, let me know and I will pass your information on to Vin.  He can also be contacted directly at 678-770-6203 or pgk12942@comcast.net)  

I received the following message from Fr. Terry Crone, Parochial Vicar at St. Catherine of Siena in Kennesaw.

Pilgrimage to Poland & Prague

Fr Terry Crone, Parochial Vicar at St Catherine of Siena in Kennesaw, GA,  will be the Spiritual Director for an 11 day pilgrimage to Poland and Prague from Sep 7-17, 2009.  The itinerary includes 2 nights in Warsaw, 1 night in Czestrochowa, 3 nights each in Krakow, and Prague. Visits to Niepokalanow and Wadowice (Home of Pope John Paul II) are planned. Cost is $3375 per person with deposit of $450 and final payment by June 16, 2009. An early booking discount is available. Package includes round-trip air from ATLANTA, Airport Taxes ($475), Superior tourist class hotels, All fees and gratuities, Escorted guides, AirCond motorcoaches, daily breakfast and dinners.  For additional information and brochures, contact Brother Knight John Tagnesi Toll free 1-888-544-4461 or jtag1964@verizon.net.

We will be working with the Boy Scout Troop at St. Benedict to do a flag retirement ceremony next year.  As soon as the date is selected, I will let you know.  We will need an Honor Guard to assist with this.  More details will follow. 

On February 5^th, Dr. Jeremiah Ascroft, president of Southern Catholic College, will be coming to St. Benedict to talk about Trends in Catholic Higher Education.  Jim Cartella is coordinating the night, and it will be open to the parish community. 

If anyone is interested in hosting our January 5^th meeting, please let me know.  The Fiesta Bowl is that night, and I think it would be a nice opportunity to have a quick meeting (yes, I said quick and will do my best to keep it that way) followed by some fellowship to relax and watch the game.

Our upcoming events and Council officers and program chairs are listed below.  Please review and think about how you can contribute.  Remember to check our website for information on our upcoming events, officer list, and other important information.  I welcome any suggestions to enhance the site. 

Vivat Jesus!

Fraternally Yours,
Patrick Gannon
Grand Knight
Knights of Columbus Council #10633

404-732-4730 Cell
770-888-6117 Home
www.stbenedictkofc.org

Upcoming Events

Council Officer and Program Chairs