Fr. Kenneth St. Hilaire,
State Chaplain
January 2021 Dear Brother Knights,
Happy new year! I wish all of you and your families all the blessings of the Christmas season, which continues through the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord on January 10. I hope you haven’t taken your Christmas decorations down yet!
2020 was a rough year in many ways, and I’m sure a lot of people are beginning this new year with a lot of hope that it will be better than last year. Everyone I talk to is eager to see an end to the pandemic and a return to at least some semblance of normality, even if it doesn’t look quite exactly like the pre-COVID world.
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Kim Washburn,
State Secretary
Brothers…Farewell to 2020!!! Don’t let the door hit you in the rear end leaving! First off, I want to thank Council 676 for letting Columbus Charities ride the coattails of their $50,000 donation to Special Olympics. That allows us to continue our Silver Level donor status and annual Community Partner Sponsorship Award presenter for Special Olympics Washington. The Knights enjoy visible exposure in our State from Special Olympics involvement. This allows us huge visibility in our state, under normal circumstances. Without Council 676, I don’t think this would have been possible despite some very generous donations received from the few Tootsie Roll Drives and GoFundMe.
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Greg Mahoney,
State Treasurer
January 2021
Brother Knights, Happy New Year to you and your families! The State Council’s financial accounts are in good standing. Thank you for your continued generous support of The Pennies for Heaven Fund. State Deputy Pat Kelley has marked this program as our signature program in the State Council and you have delivered despite fundraising challenges over the last several months. Through your generous donations over the years, the State Council recently cut checks to each diocese in WA and to Bishop White Seminary in support of seminarians. The good news is that Bishop White Seminary is expanding, and we are assisting in a renovation project.
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Tom Williams,
State Advocate
January 2021 My Brother Knights,
Welcome to the second half of the fraternal year! We may have some good news on the pandemic front, as I write this article the first vaccines have been approved and are shipping. I hope and pray that the scourge of COVID-19 may start waning and allow us to resume a more normal life. Please plan how your Councils can continue to take care of business and prepare themselves for this time.
There have been some big changes in the Safe Environment Program that will affect many members and Councils. Effective immediately, each SEP position (Grand Knight, Community Director, Family Director and Program Director) will require a unique email ID, associated only to that member.
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Dr. Scott Hulse,
State Warden
January 2021 Each Knight in Washington State is asked to complete an “Annual Survey of Fraternal Activity.” The “Annual Survey of Fraternal Activity” is important because collected information supports our organizational tax status. However, more important, the “Annual Survey of Fraternal Activity” provides us with a way to review how well our Councils performed based on a comparison of accomplishments with the goals that we set for our Councils during the last half of the previous fraternal year and the first half of the current fraternal year. Please make sure all Council members are aware of why the “Annual Survey of Fraternal Activity” is important and when the survey should be returned to the Council’s Financial Secretary.
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Bob Baemmert,
Immediate Past State Deputy
January 2021
Hi Brothers,
We live in exciting times! Vaccinations to move us beyond the pandemic has turned my thinking back to the times when Council Meetings could be held in person and the buzz at the meeting was what new project we were gonna get into this month for God and Country.
One of the issues that started to surface before the pandemic was how good the Supreme Council has gotten at making it attractive to join the Knights of Columbus and how easy it was to move on for a new guy in the ranks. I’m referring, of course, to On-Line Membership and the Combining of the Three Degrees into a single half-hour.
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