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KNIGHT LIGHTS

November/December 2002

MONSIGNOR O’CONNELL COUNCIL 8072

This special edition combines November’s issue with a few new reports and items from December.  This is the first hard copy mailing of our new newsletter.  Since November’s issue was only sent out on email, we decided to reprint those articles, add the new ones for December, and mail out a special edition.  This will hopefully get us caught up.  In January we will begin sending out both email and regular mail newsletters monthly. 

BUSINESS MEETINGS THIRD THURSDAY OF EVERY MONTH

7:30 P.M. OFFICERS/COMMITEES

8:15 P.M. ROSARY

8:30 P.M. GENERAL BUSINESS

@ ST. JUDE SCHOOL, MEDIA ROOM

Grand Knight’s Message, November 2002

Dear Brothers:

Thank you to all who contributed to getting this newsletter back in circulation.  We have a great team assembled.  PGK Fred D’Astoli is our editor.  He sets submission deadlines, gathers reports, and then, creates the text and basic layout of the main document.  When this is done, he emails the document to our web distributors, Bob Tarn and Bryan Bruno.  Bryan and Sharon Bruno will splash up the document with graphics and post it on the council website; http://kofc8072council.faithweb.com/council.html.

After receiving the final draft of the newsletter from our webmasters, Bob Tarn emails the newsletter to all the members who gave us their email address.  Bob keeps track of all the members’ preferences for email or hard copy distribution of the newsletter and maintains the accuracy of the lists.

After Bob sends out the email version of the newsletter to the membership, he then emails Brother Knight John Zitzelberger with the list of members desiring a hard copy in the mail.  John is our hard copy distributor.  He will get the newsletter printed, posted and mailed.  John has two children at St Jude’s school.  Each month, he will arrange to have some of our school children earn some service hour time by folding the newsletters and applying the postage.  By splitting the responsibilities into three categories, we will keep the quality very high and distribute the large sacrifice of time and effort required for this essential council activity. 

I am not sure how to cover the events of the last four months without filling an entire newsletter with just my report and a list of acknowledgements. 

First, It is a great privilege and honor to serve as your Grand Knight.  Our Officers and Program Directors are highly skilled leaders and administrators.  They are very devout and conscientious Catholic gentlemen, husbands, fathers, businessmen and citizens.  Guided by our Worthy Past Grand Knights, Trustees, Financial Secretary and Treasurer, we have put in place a strong leadership team.  I will let their reports speak for them.  If you have not seen these men in action yet, you are in for a very pleasant and inspiring experience.

We have a lot to do.  This year is going to be very fun and fulfilling for us, for our families and for the community we love and serve. For example, our planning session last Saturday was thrilling.  Some thirty men, including; Father Bill, Pastor of St. Jude, Fr. Dave Heney, Pastor of St. Paschal, Dea. Joe Manion and Dea. Dick Dornan came together for three hours in the early morning to share scriptures, prayers, good food and ideas.  We will be gathering a rich harvest from what was planted with the aid of the Holy Spirit on that day. Three knights were at the heart of that event.  They have earned our sincerest thanks.  They are George Brennan (facilitator), Bruce Gorman (administration), and Louis Ruiz (logistics).  Several others helped in planning and phone calling.  Stay tuned for the outcome and reports from this meeting.

Last September, our Deputy Grand Knight David Griffin organized our council to set up, cook and clean for the St. Jude School back to school picnic.  David’s wife Kelly was the chairperson for the event with the Women’s Christian Service Organization. We served well over 200 people and raised over $1300.00.  This is just the beginning of what we know will be a strong and rewarding partnership with St. Jude’s School in service to our children.

Our Tootsie Roll Drive is underway and well on the way to reaching our goal of $2000.00.  Chairman Bob Tarn has returned this year and has set up a great campaign.

As I am writing this, it is getting quite late at night and I am determined to send this off to Fred D’Astoli to get this newsletter rolling, so, I will end here.  If you are reading this newsletter and it has been some time since you came to a meeting or served on an event or committee, please consider doing so.  There is a great wave of renewal moving through our Council and our Catholic Community.  Come, “taste and see”.

Vivat Jesus!

Seth Wegher-Thompson, GK, FIC

__________________________________________________________________________________

Grand Knight’s Report, December 2002

My Brothers, last month’s newsletter was not distributed to the entire membership so this month we are reprinting the articles along with some new reports for December.

At our last general meeting, I had the privilege of announcing that the Knight of the Month for November was Bob Tarn.  Bob serves as our council’s Advocate.  He has chaired both the Free Throw competition and the Tootsie Roll drive for two years.  Last month, with Bob’s leadership, our Tootsie Roll drive raised nearly $3200.00.  The goal this year was $2000.00!  Great job!  Bob is a humble and effective servant to our Lord and our Catholic community.  He is also regarded highly by his professional peers.  Bob was recently selected to lead the association of aerospace engineers to which he belongs. 

I want to welcome a new Brother to Council 8072.  Mark Paris received the honors of the First and Second Degree on November 20th.  Mark and his wife Nelly are long time parishioners of St Jude.  They are very involved with the Loaves and Fishes program.  You will be hearing a lot more about this excellent charitable opportunity in the New Year.  Mark has volunteered to work with our Community Director to explore how we Knights could strengthen this worthy effort. 

I am also thrilled to inform you that we have had a few men reapply or reactivate their membership.  They are: Bill Chiaro (who has already accepted the position of Community Director), Adam Manfredonia, and Jerry Fennell.  Please give these men your warmest regards when you meet them.

I am glad to report that the last general business meeting stayed very close to our scheduled agenda.  Because of this, we were able to bring back the “Good of the Order” section of the meeting.  We held a 50/50 drawing.  If I remember correctly, Dennis Miller won $21.00 and the Council general fund received $21.00.  We also voted on the new style of KC shirt and hat for this year (Bill Chiaro, who is an attorney with Aramark Uniforms, is heading up the effort to produce and distribute them).  We accomplished all this and the general business by 9:35 pm.  What makes this possible is very simple: take care of all the details in committee.  In the general meeting we ask Jesus for his blessing, tend to the required administrative duties, make reports of progress, identify concerns, assign people to address those concerns, enjoy some meaningful social time together and then return to our families refreshed and optimistic. 

Now, the Officers and Committees meeting is a different story.  This is an extra commitment of time during which we address those details that cannot be taken care of in any other way.  I feel that we may need to give more time to this meeting.  Currently we start at 7:30pm and end at 8:15pm.  I will recommend that we start at 6:30pm and have food available for the first half hour (free will donation).  At 7pm we will sit down and begin the meeting.  My reasoning is that this will let us talk in our sub committees while we eat and give us a full hour for the Officers/Committee meeting to take place.  Please give me your input on this idea.  I will bring it up at the next scheduled meeting.

Lastly, I want to point out that our Council will be honored to have one of our Brothers, Chris Mann, sworn in as Mayor of Westlake Village on Saturday, December 7^th.  By the time this goes to print, I am sure that Brother Mann will already be in office.  Congratulations Chris, and thank you for representing our Council and our Order with such distinction.  God bless your term of service.

Vivat Jesus!

Seth Wegher-Thompson, GK, FA.

Deputy Grand Knight's Report

NO REPORT SUBMITTED

Membership Committee

NO REPORT SUBMITTED

Upcoming Events

CHURCH DIRECTOR

 

NO REPORT SUBMITTED

COMMUNITY DIRECTOR REPORT

 

The Community Involvement Committee exists to identify where help and assistance

are needed for St. Jude parishioners.

 

Generally, when a parishioner calls the rectory for help, our committee will be notified by

Marilyn Greviere. Acting on Marilyn's call, our committee acts to render the assistance needed; e.g., communion to sick and dying at the residence, nursing home or hospital 

assisting with funeral arrangements,etc.

 

It is a blessing to be able to help those in need, and the Community Involvement Committee is a living example of the Kof C charitable ministry.

 

Bill Chiaro 

 

 

 

COUNCIL DIRECTOR REPORT

 

NO REPORT SUBMITTED

 

FAMILY DIRECTOR REPORT

 

 

Planning for the 02/03 Family Activities is in the early stages.  There was a lot of interest in the Social aspects of Family at our recent Planning session.  Toward this end, we will likely have 2 Family Picnics per year - one in Spring and one in Fall.  I will be presenting a detailed plan with events at the November officers meeting.  If you have any ideas for "Family" or would like to help with Family actvities please feel free to email me at KPRMLarkin@aol.com or phone me at 818-597-2520.

Thank-you

Kevin Larkin

 

                                                                                                                                                           

 

 

YOUTH DIRECTOR REPORT

 

15^th Annual Tootsie-Roll Drive for the Mentally Disabled

 

The 15th annual Columbian Foundation fund raiser for people with mental disabilities was a tremendous success.  Nearly $3,200 was collected during the weekends of October 19 & 26 at a number of locations throughout the area.  This tops last year’s collection of $1,500, and is more than 50% over our goal $2,000 for this year!  The proceeds will be directed to the Association for Retarded Citizens of Ventura County (Arc-VC).  Arc-VC is committed to securing, for all people with developmental disabilities, the opportunity to choose and realize their goals of where and how they learn, live, work and play.  For more information about Arc-VC, please visit http://www.thearc.org/.

 

The fundraiser was a lot of fun, too.  Handing out donated Tootsie Rolls to anyone kind enough to deposit a donation of any size into our collection cans, we were rewarded with the satisfaction of giving people an opportunity to help a very worthy cause.  Volunteers contributed a total of 135 hours, including 46 hours by Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, and family members of member Knights.  Funds were collected at the Thousand Oaks Post Office, Vons Market in Agoura, and all masses at St. Maximilian Colby and St. Jude the

Apostle churches.  Boy Scout Troop 745 planned to collect at the Agoura Mann 8 Theater on Saturday evening, October 26, but the theater management did not permit it.

 

The following volunteers participated:

 

Knights

Al Liddicoat

Jim Ferguson

Ed Sarango

Bob Tarn

Dennis Miller

Dick Crowley

Gerry Weisbecker

Seth Wegher-Thompson

Nick Schrodt

Terry Lilly

Louis Ruiz

Kevin Larkin

Ron Bodigheimer

Shelby Terry

Steve Moore

Mike McCarthy

Larry Conti

Bryan Bruno

Frank Campana

Dick Crowley

Duke Ehrhardt

Ray Cambalik

John Amott

Charles Wentrup

Fred D’Astoli

John Zitzelberger

Rich Wormus

Tom Whittington

 

Other Volunteers

Barbara Wegher-Thompson

Ian Wegher-Thompson

Theresa Wegher-Thompson

Kathy McBride (Leader, Troop 181)

Jordan Jeworski (Troop 181)

Emily McBride (Troop 181)

Kate Prechtl (Troop 181)

Gina Conti & Conti children

Michael Alexandar (St. Max Jr. High)

Peter John Alexander (St. Max Jr. High)

Victoria Trepany (Jr. Girl Scout)

Marilyn Cothran (ARC-VC)

Chris Chiarappa (ARC-VC)

Laura Palmer (ARC-VC)

Clayton Wade (ARC-VC)

Bob Koch (Leader, Troop 745)

Tim Koch (Troop 745)

Robert Koch (Troop 745)

Ed Cass (Troop 745)

Susan Cass (Leader, Troop 181)

Troop 181 Brownie Scouts

 

 

 

PRO LIFE DIRECTOR

 

 

Pro Life issues have always been at the fore front of positions of The Knights of Columbus. It is only with the beginning of this fraternal year that our Council has elected to follow the State-wide format of establishing a separate standing committee to coordinate Pro Life efforts within the Council and through out the community.

 

To get the ball rolling, Seth Thompson our Grand Knight, asked me to be the committee director for the initial year. We have begun reaching out, and hope to establish a network of communication so we can promote the cause. The Knights of Columbus will be working directly with the Respect Life Ministry at St Jude Catholic Community in support of their efforts.

 

In addition, we have reached out to the other three parishes in the Conejo Valley and will be setting up regular contact to provide mutual support for each other’s programs as well as common planning sessions and events.

 

You will have already noticed fruit of these labors in our announcement at St Jude’s regarding the Pro Life speaker, Scott Klusendorf, hosted by St Max’s Respect Life Ministry, and the distribution of Pro Life Voter’s Guides the week-end prior to the election.

 

We want to continue in these types of “support” activities as well as establishing ongoing and one of a kind events. We are still in early planning for those activities. Your input and participation are encouraged.

 

If you would like to get involved, even a little, please contact Bruce Gorman at (805) 376-1377. We look forward to accomplishing much this year, and into the future.

 

Bruce Gorman

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is an opportunity for one or two Knights to take on a service project that will GREATLY benefit St. Jude School.  I spoke with Sharon Rhatigan the other day.  She runs the scrip fundraising program for the school.  They raise $20,000 - $30,000 every year by getting people to purchase scrip coupons and swipe cards for vendors in the community.  I think we could double or triple that amount.  Here’s how. 

Currently, the school publicizes the scrip program in handouts to the students and the parish.  They then depend on participants to fill out order forms and get them to Sharon who fills the orders and distributes the scrip.  She does this by hand or by leaving the filled orders at the church and school offices.  The administration work she does just to maintain the vendor accounts and distribute the order forms is a big job all by itself.  I’m sure that if she had someone else to do the marketing and the distribution end the program would be much more efficient and profitable.  This is money just waiting to be collected for our school.

Do you have some marketing or sales skills?  Are you interested in controlling a service ministry you can run from your house, on your own time that will keep you in touch with hundreds of people and raise tens of thousands of needed dollars for our children?  Oh yes, and did I mention, ‘NO HEAVY LIFTING OR DIRTY DISHES’?

 

 

My idea is this.  You could help spread the word about the program and maintain ‘client accounts’.  Make the program easier for people to participate in by helping them place their orders and receive the scrip.  I am praying that there is a Brother Knight out there who wants to use some of the business and people skills developed over a career to make a big difference in the Catholic education of our children.

Call me if you want to kick the idea around.

Vivat Jesus!

Seth Wegher-Thompson GK    (805) 241-6446    kcseth@earthlink.net

 

 

 

 

 

 

God does not demand that I be successful.

God demands that I be faithful.

When facing God, results are not important.

Faithfulness is what is important.

 

 

Mother Teresa

“In My Own Words”

 

KNIGHT LIGHTS PATRONS FOR 2003

 

IN THIS SECTION, WE WILL POST THE NAMES OF THOSE BROTHER KNIGHTS WHO MAKE A DONATION OF $10 OR MORE PER YEAR TO HELP PAY FOR THE COST OF DISTRIBUTING THIS NEWSLETTER.

PLEASE CONTACT THE FINANCIAL SECRETARY.

                                                                                                                       

 

Monsignor O’Connell Council #8072

Officers and Directors 2002-2003

 

 

TITLE	NAME
Chaplain	Msgr William Leser
Grand Knight	Seth Wegher-Thompson
Deputy Grand Knight	David Griffin
Financial Secretary	Gene Morrow
Chancellor	Duke Ehrhardt
Recorder	Kevin Larkin
Treasurer	Dick Crowley
Advocate	Bob Tarn
Warden	Louis Ruiz
Inside Guard	Bill Wilkinson
Outside Guard	Bryan Bruno
Trustee	Mike McCarthy
Trustee	Terry Lilly
Trustee	Al Liddicoat
Membership Chairman	Duke Ehrhardt
Lecturer	Open
Church Activities	Open
Community Activities	Bill Chiaro
Family Activities	Kevin Larkin
Youth Activities	Bob Tarn
Council Activities	Michael Conley
Pro Life Activities	Bruce Gorman
Webmasters	Bryan, Sharon Bruno
Newsletter Editor	Fred D’Astoli
Newsletter Mail Lists	Bob Tarn
Newsletter Hard Copy Distrib.	John Zitzelberger
District Deputy	Al McKinley
Chapter President	Timothy Carvalho
Insurance Agent	Seth Thompson

 

CHARITY – UNITY – FRATERNITY – PATRIOTISM

Published for, and in the interest Monsignor O’Connell Council #8072 of the Knights of Columbus, P.O. Box 3216 Westlake Village, CA 91359