International Church Activity Awards

In June 2006, Father Randy Mattox was appointed administrator of Good Samaritan Mission Church in Ellijay, Georgia. The first thing he asked local Knights to do was to form a council there. Due to the enthusiasm of this pastor, Council No. 14181 was chartered in January 2007 with 39 members!

Father Mattox then asked why there were no kneelers in the former Methodist church. The new council made it a priority to get kneelers for the curved pews. When the mission bought the church 11 years earlier, there were only 50 families and such a project was cost-prohibitive.

But the members of the new council were providentially gifted: they had one former architect, a structural engineer, a draftsman, and several retired carpenters. Also, 25 of the new council members participated. One of the members who couldn’t participate offered to pay for all the materials. As the council said, “This was a great way for the Knights to get to know each other better, and a great way to start out a new council.”

Before long the project was complete, and Father Mattox wrote the following in the parish bulletin:

“I would like to thank all of the Knights of Columbus for the truly tremendous job they did on the church kneelers. It took a great deal of talent to design and produce kneelers for our curved pews, but thanks to the tremendous talent of all the Knights, what was once an impossibility is now a reality. The kneelers are comfortable and beautiful. They look like they have always been here! It just shows what faith, teamwork and dedication can do.”         

The renovation of St. Paul the Apostle Church in Kingston, Ontario, started five years ago with a $25,000 pledge by Council No. 9652. They raised this money through a series of five Columbian Balls, five art sales, five bake sales and five yard sales—in other words, the council’s entire programming for this period. The initial phase of this project involved more than 85 Knights performing in excess of 600 hours of service.

Not only did this council raise the money they pledged, but they also pitched in with the renovations. In the second part of this project, they constructed the landscape and retaining walls.

Next they prepared seven beds (1,750 square feet) for the shrubs and flowers and then planted them. Four stone retaining walls were built. This required an additional $10,000 pledge over four years. In this phase Squires Circle No. 4283 worked side-by-side with the council.

Finally, when the project was completed, the council took on an additional commitment — the ongoing maintenance and care of the new planting beds, as well as the existing ones on the parish property.

This is not to mention the council undertaking the development of a new memorial arboretum at the back side of the church. All things told, the Knights gave a new face to their parish.

In celebration of the 10th anniversary of the apostolic visit of Pope John Paul II’s vist to Podhale, Poland, members of Matki Bożej Ludźmierskiej Council 14001 in Ludźmierz worked with representatives of the Marian Shrine in Ludzmierz to establish a plan for the celebration of a Mass and the concert.

The council was involved in the logistics for the event as well as securing funds for it. More than 1,500 people attended the Mass and concert held on June 3, 2007.