April From the Grand Knight

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1 April 2017 From the Grand Knight Fellow Brother Knights, This is such a Beautiful time of the year, we show our true Faith in prayer and support of everything Jesus has sacrificed because of the love he has shone for all of us. It is a wonderful time to show Charity to everyone and believe in Peace to all as we remember his suffering and death, followed by his Resurrection on the 3rd Day and Ascension to Heaven. Please take the time to attend the services offered in Church with your family and celebrate Holy Week and Easter Sunday with your families. Enjoy all God s gifts as you watch all that spring has to offer us at this wonderful time of the year. Just a reminder that it s also that time of the year that our yearly dues need to be paid. Our Worthy Financial Secretary has been hard at work with this task and doing a great job with following up on it with everyone. Thanks for your attention to getting your dues paid. Hopefully everyone received their ticket raffles for benefiting Gibault Children s Services. It was originally founded to help wayward boys. Today it serves girls as well as boys. Without Gibault, these children would never get the needed help and chance to change their lives and lead meaningful lives. The tickets are 6 for $5.00 for a chance at winning up to $6000 as the Grand Prize or many other various prizes. Best of all you know you helped make a difference! Please get these returned no later than April 24th. They can be returned in the envelope that was sent with them or dropped off at STM Parish office. It s also a time for our Council to start making plans and arrangements for the upcoming Officer elections. If anyone has any interest in being an upcoming officer please contact me on my cell at or by , veech6@gmail.com. Being an officer is a very rewarding experience and a great opportunity to work with a wonderful group of men in helping to spread Gods work in our beliefs and helping others in need, we also would greatly appreciate the fresh and new ideas and thoughts from our council members that they can bring to the table. This March at our Social meeting we welcomed 2 new Brothers into our Council, Brother Jorge Cornejo and Ed Pilawski, please show them a warm welcome when you see them at our next meeting. New Resolution At our last business meeting it was brought up that CYO Camp Lawrence, which has been in existence for 58 years, is running their summer camp and is requesting a sponsor for an underprivileged child to attend. This is a wonderful Catholic Camp that some of our Brothers have attended as they were growing up. In order to sponsor one of these children for a week, the cost is $250. This is an amount that is over the amount we can donate without passing a resolution. This resolution must be read at three meetings and published in our Newsletter for all Members to see. Father Mike came through and at this same business meeting drafted the resolution that was needed, this is posted below. The resolution reads as follows: WHEREAS CYO Camp Lawrence has been in existence for 58 years; and WHEREAS CYO Camp Lawrence has provided youth an opportunity to get close to nature, close to God ; and WHEREAS not all families can afford to send their children to camp; and WHEREAS CYO Camp Lawrence has a Campership program to sponsor needy children, THUS BE IT RESOLVED that the Knights of Columbus Council will provide $ to CYO Camp Lawrence to send a needy Child to camp for one week. First Reading: Monday, March 13, 2017 Publication: April 1, 2017 Lenten Fish Fry The fish fry was a great turnout and very successful thanks to all the Brothers that came to help and brought their families as well to experience this time together at our Parish. Donut Sundays There will be no Donuts served over the Lenten Period. A new schedule will start in May.

2 Tootsie Roll Campaign Brothers, again in May, our council will be collecting donations for Persons with Intellectual Disabilities via the annual Tootsie Roll Campaign. Donations collected go to groups in our area that help people with disabilities: The ARC of NWI, Share Foundation, Planting Possibilities and Special Olympics. Collection dates and location: Friday May 5th / Saturday May 6th - Strack & Van Til s Friday May 12th / Saturday May 13 th - Jewel Foods & Ace Hardware (Munster) Saturday May 13th and Sunday May 14th after all the Masses at St. Thomas More Church An will be forth coming via SignUp Genius regarding the schedule and giving you a chance to sign up. Many brothers are needed to man collection time slots. Please be generous volunteering your time. New Field Agent Our Council has a new insurance field agent. His name is Christopher Gaston. We are extending a warm invitation to Christopher to attend our next business meeting on April 10th. If you need to contact our new field agent, he can be reached at or by at christopher.gaston@kofc.org. Council Scholarships Annually the council awards a $500 scholarship to a member s son or daughter, grandson or granddaughter graduating 8th grade from St. Thomas More School and attending a Catholic high school in the fall. If interested in partaking in the scholarship please submit child s name to Grand Knight Frank Lewandowski no later than May 1st. My address is veech6@gmail.com. Take a Stand for Life From March 1st to April 9th, our community will take part in 40 Days for Life: a groundbreaking, coordinated international mobilization. We pray that, with God s help, this will mark the beginning of the end of abortion in our city and beyond. The 40 Day for Life Spring Campaign began on Ash Wednesday. We had good representation from Our Council Saturday, March 11th. We peacefully stood and prayed with other groups on the Public right of way on the hill outside the Planned Parenthood. A Jericho March will take place on Saturday, April 1st starting at the Diocesan Center at 9:00 a.m. The march will leave there and go to Planned Parenthood facility located at 8645b Connecticut Street, Merrillville, IN. The March will arrive there at 10:00 a.m. Let s try and make this a strong Council representation in support of God s unborn children. Can I count on seeing you there? Easter Sausage Making Once again, a fantastic time was had with good Fellowship and of course tasting and sampling each batch to ensure the quality was where it should be. The event saw many new faces and it was wonderful to see this participation by everyone, thanks to Brother Dave and Brother Stan for making sure we had another successful fun event, and of course all the Brothers who came out to help and make this a worthwhile event bringing us all together and getting to know each other better. Rise n Roll Amish Bakery Sale The date is fast approaching and everyone will be so happy to feast on this wonderful food following our Lenten Sacrifices. The date is April 22nd, from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. or until all goods are sold out. It will be at the St. Thomas Weis Center. All Pre-orders must be paid by April 14th. The phone number is and web address is The checks for any pre-orders should be made out to the Knights of Columbus and could be dropped off at the Parish Office or brought to the event. Mark this on your calendar I know you will be glad you did! The proceeds from this event will go to the Capital Budget Campaign at St. Tom s. Future Dates to Remember 4/10 Officers meeting 6:15 p.m. in the Solar Room 4/10 Next Council Meeting 7:30 p.m. in the Solar Room 4/24 Next Social Meeting 7:30 p.m. in the Solar Room 2 Michael Hatczel John Mogle David Wendlinger 5 Jay Harker 7 Matt Blocher 10 Greg Jarvis 11 Richard Szewka 13 David Trotman 17 Brandon Lopez 19 James Szymanski 22 James Kaczka 23 David Depa 25 Joseph Stodola 26 Steven Wagner 28 Thomas Jez 30 Michael Popovich HAPPY BIRTHDAY BROTHERS!!! My apologies if I missed anyone on the Birthday list. Vivat Jesus, W. Frank Lewandowski Grand Knight

3 The 116th Annual Meeting of the Indiana Jurisdiction of the Knights of Columbus will be held on April 28th to April 30th, 2017, at the Marriott East Hotel, Indianapolis, IN. Everyone is invited to attend 2017 Convention (Knights, Families, Clergy and Friends). Everyone needs to make hotel reservations ASAP; space is extremely limited. Key Dates: 4/1 Convention Pre-Registration ends (mail form and check to State Secretary) 4/14 Last day to submit "Certificate of Credentials" for Delegates to State Secretary 4/14 Last day for Chaplain's Dinner RSVP 4/28 Convention begins As our District Deputy reminded us at our March Business Meeting, be advised: Councils should recycle the "Pop Tops" locally and make donations directly to Ronald McDonald house. The pop tops will not be accepted at the convention this year. If you bring any with you, you will end up taking them back home with you. From the Chaplain Dear Brothers, The final days of Lent are upon us and Easter is fast approaching. With it, the Church kicks into high gear in terms of many additional services and plans for Holy Week. Kindly let this serve as a reminder to you that the best way to prepare yourself spiritually for Easter is to go to confession. Penance Services available to you in the Southlake Deanery are listed here. You have plenty of opportunity, so please make sure you avail yourselves of it. (All times are at 7:00 p.m. unless noted otherwise.) Monday, April 3 St. Edward, Lowell St. Matthias, Crown Point 6:00 p.m. St. Michael, Schererville Tuesday, April 4 Our Lady of Consolation, Merrillville St. Mary, Crown Point Wednesday, April 5 St. James, Highland St. Joseph, Dyer Thursday, April 6 St. Andrew the Apostle, Merrillville St. Mary/St. Anne, Griffith Friday, April 7 Ss. Peter & Paul, Merrillville 1:00 p.m. Wednesday, April 12 Holy Name, Cedar Lake The schedule at St. Thomas More for Holy Week is as follows: April 12: 7:00 p.m. Last-minute confessions during Taizé Prayer April 13: 10:30 a.m. Chrism Mass (at Holy Angels Cathedral in Gary) 7:00 p.m. Mass of the Lord s Supper April 14: 1:30 p.m. Liturgy of the Lord s Passion 7:00 p.m. Tenebrae Service April 15: 2:00 p.m. Blessing of the Easter Baskets 8:00 p.m. Easter Vigil Mass April 16: Easter Sunday Masses at 6:30 a.m., 8:00 a.m., 10:00 a.m., and 12:00 Noon

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