2011 International Council Activity Award
North Dakota State Deputy and Mrs. Gary Steier and Immediate Past State Deputy and Mrs. Cory Badinger join Past Grand Knight and Mrs. Michael Matejcek in accepting the International Council Activities Award on behalf of Wahpeton Council 2205 in Wahpeton, N.D., for its council meeting chamber construction project.
After selling its hall in the late 1980s, Wahpeton Council 2205 in Wahpeton, North Dakota, constructed a meeting room in the basement of the local parish center.
Several years later, after a flood, the center’s basement was remodeled exclusively as a day care center and the council was forced to find a new meeting place. When the parish needed funds to build an elementary school, Grand Knight Mike Matejcek was approached. In return for supplying $100,000 for the project, the council was allotted a room in the school that it could use for gatherings, activities, etc.
Council members both designed and finished the room for the council’s use. Their additional contribution for materials and furnishings totaled $60,000. An image of Father McGivney and the council’s charter are now displayed permanently in the finished meeting room, which features a large conference table, leather conference chairs embossed with the Emblem of the Order and modern A/V presentation equipment. Twenty-one Knights (five percent of the council’s membership) put in 1,236 hours on this project.