International Community Service Award

First Place
Grand Knight Kevin C. McKenna
and Knights
in Richard Cardinal Cushing
Council 6267
Pembroke, Mass.

The Knights of Columbus has long been closely associated with efforts to support people with intellectual disabilities and special needs. Last year, Grand Knight Kevin C. McKenna and Knights in Richard Cardinal Cushing Council 6267 organized a very special event – a prom – for special needs students in and around Pembroke, Mass.

In the best tradition of the Order, they received assistance from five other local councils, a Fourth Degree assembly and the state council.

Kevin is the proud father of three special needs children, and was moved to propose the project after an incident at a school dance involving his autistic 10-year-old daughter, Tori.

In all, 125 members of the council, as well as many additional volunteers from the community, devoted more than 3,500 hours to organizing the dance. They arranged for free prom dresses and tuxedos for those who could not afford them, and obtained donations of invitations, decorations and gifts for the attendees. A neighboring grand knight served as the DJ, and another Knight volunteered to take photographs of all the prom-goers.

Volunteers from the local high school and the Rotary Club also donated many hours to make the event a success.

Most of the 75 special needs students attend the Cardinal Cushing Center in Hanover, but parents from other area schools called to ask whether their special needs children could attend too, and of course they were warmly welcomed. The event was the subject of wonderful news coverage in the Boston Globe and the Patriot Ledger.

Kevin says that the Special Needs Prom is “the most enjoyable time [he has] ever had as a member of the Knights of Columbus,” and not only did he help organize a 2009 prom at his home council (which was twice as big as last year), he also helped Tewkesbury Council organize one of its own.

Convention delegates welcomed State Deputy William F. Donovan and his wife, Ann Marie, and Past Grand Knight and Mrs. Kevin C. McKenna as they received the Supreme Council’s 2009 Community Award on behalf of Richard Cardinal Cushing Council 6267.