Beyond the Badge

Chicago first responders find new ways to protect and serve the community as Knights

By Megan Stibley

July 31, 2025

Members of St. Jude First Responder Council 17110 make a delivery to St. Joseph’s Home, a soup kitchen operated by the Missionaries of Charity in Chicago that serves about 200 meals a week. (Photo by Karen Callaway)

After years of service with the U.S. Marines and Evergreen Park Police Department, Mark Herrera found a new way to give back to his community when he joined the Knights of Columbus in 2018. Now serving as grand knight of St. Jude First Responder Council 17110 in Chicago, Herrera leads a council predominantly made up of police officers, firefighters and paramedics — first responders who continue to serve and protect even beyond the routine night shifts and emergency calls.

“There’s only so much you can do in a 12-hour period as a law enforcement officer,” Herrera said. “It’s very humbling to be able to help on more than one level within the community.”

Paul Rutherford, a police officer based on the South Side of Chicago, helped form Council 17110 in July 2019. About 50 Knights from St. Michael the Archangel, Patron of Police Council 12173 transferred to the new South Side council with him.

Dominican Father Michail Ford, director of the Dominican Shrine of St. Jude Thaddeus in Chicago, had previously served as a police chaplain in St. Louis and agreed to help Rutherford and his friends establish the new council, a South Side complement to Council 12173. The council chose the name St. Jude First Responder due to the large number of law enforcement officers and other first responders who are members of the council.

“When it comes to [first responders], you’re all part of a special brotherhood,” said Rutherford, who has held several K of C officer roles and positions since joining the Knights in 2016. “Now, you’re in a fraternal brotherhood with the Knights, which, for me, is an honor.”

Throughout the year, Council 17110, which is associated with the Shrine of St. Jude, supports numerous charities and organizations within the parish and community, including through its annual participation in the Knights of Columbus Coats for Kids program, providing security for community events, and holding services and social events to honor first responders who have died in the line of duty.

Knights also regularly deliver food to St. Joseph’s Home, a soup kitchen operated by the Missionaries of Charity that serves about 200 meals a week. The council purchases food for the kitchen at least once a month, and members often drive through the neighborhood to see if the sisters need anything.

“The reward the individual gets from helping others is greater than the act itself,” Herrera said. “When you look at the face of someone you serve and see the gratitude that they give you, how do you beat that? You can’t.”

While members of the Knights of Columbus come from all kinds of work and professions, Rutherford believes a council filled with first responders adds an aspect of unspoken understanding and community among its members.

“Being part of that profession, you already want to serve,” Rutherford said. “That’s the reason why we go into this call of service as a first responder, because we want to make a difference in our community.”

Members of St. Jude First Responder Council 17110 pray together in the chapel at St. Joseph’s Home, a soup kitchen operated by the Missionaries of Charity in Chicago. (Photo by Karen Callaway) — Members of St. Jude First Responder Council 17110 pray together in the chapel at St. Joseph’s Home, a soup kitchen operated by the Missionaries of Charity in Chicago. *(Photo by Karen Callaway)*

Rutherford served as the grand knight of Council 17110 from 2019 until last summer, when he passed the role on to Herrera. One of Rutherford’s closest friends, Herrera had procrastinated joining the Order for a long time, until Rutherford finally convinced him.

“I was so busy with night shifts and I was always changing schedules, I just felt I didn’t have the time,” Herrera said. “Paul sat me down and said, ‘I know you’re a God-fearing man; it’s time you came in and gave me a hand.’”

Committed to caring for the community, Council 17110 also prioritizes taking care of its own members — spiritually and mentally.

“Going through what we go through [as first responders], a lot of people don’t understand the toll it takes,” Herrera said. “We go to work not knowing if we’re going to come home, and that’s the craziest thing ever.”

A key way the council cares for its members and fellow first responders is through mental health advocacy and by offering spiritual nourishment and support to first responders — encouraging them to seek the help they need while lifting them up with prayerful support.

“The faster we find out that someone needs help, the faster we can help them or point them in the right direction,” Herrera said. “It’s not just the person who’s going through it, it’s everybody. When you lose a man or a woman on the job, it is a big hole. The question is, how do we help? What can we do?”

While serving on Council 17110 is an opportunity for first responders to give back even more to the community, it has also been an opportunity for the first responders to receive.

“We all have an expiration date. As first responders, we play with the expiration date,” Rutherford said. “It’s all a mental strain on us. But being a part of the Knights, it helps us to understand that there’s a higher power than what’s out there. There’s a God that loves us and that we can depend on to protect us.”

Herrera hopes more first responders join Council 17110, believing that together, they can continue to better understand and serve their community at the different levels required. He wants the council to build rapport with the community in a way that makes it a family. Most importantly, he hopes the good they do through the Knights can have a domino effect, inspiring neighbors to turn out in support of each other.

“If you receive something and you have a pure heart, you want to give it back,” Herrera said. “If you give to others and show them the world can be giving and kind and grateful, you would hope that they would receive this message and pass it on.”

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MEGAN STIBLEY is associate editor of Columbia.