May/June 2013 KNIGHTLY Prince of Peace Council #7909 NEWS www.kofc7909.org Officers Grand Knight Bob Plant 791-0102 Chaplain Father Bill Bruening 764-6115 Deputy Grand Knight Ron Schieffer 530-6343 Chancellor Doug Svatos 829-9411 Recorder Ryan Brotherson 254-7276 Financial Secretary Gene Finnigan 261-8132 Lecturer Bill Hoge whoge@sbcglobal.net Treasurer Steve McBride 851-8480 Advocate Troy Mills 948-7758 Warden Matt Garrard 951-7669 Inside Guards Dave Mulhall 782-3139 Outside Guards Victor Wallace Alfredo Diaz Trustees 1. Bob Davis 782-0135 2. Dennis Meehan 780-5332 3. David Tout 782-6638 Grand Knight Bob Plant A Message from the Grand Knight Brother Knights: A great big thank you to everyone who helped at our very successful state convention. Some of you took vacation days from work, and it is truly appreciated. I also want to thank Tommy Negrete for all his work as the State Convention Chairman. Along with St. Paul s council, we put on an albeit chilly, but wet golf tournament, convention fish fry, a ladies luncheon, and the final convention banquet on Saturday night. We served over 400 people at the banquet in the less than 18 minutes. A special thank you to the audio and visual guys, who provided live feeds of the masses and other important convention events. Thanks again for everyone s help! If you missed the convention, you can view the videos at the state convention s website. Visit http://kofcksstateconv2013.com/ Tempus Fugit! As I near the end of my tenure as Grand Knight of the best council in the State of Kansas, I want to thank each and every member who stepped up to the plate this past year to make my job easier. A special thanks to my Deputy Grand Knight Ron Schieffer -- for always being there with his sage advice, and to Tommy Negrete -- for all his work with the State Convention. Without guys like you we could never be as good as we can be. I urge every member to continue their hard work in the coming year. Ron Schieffer will prove to be one of the best Grand Knights we ve ever had and -- if you haven t been that involved in the past; now is a great time to help Ron make this the best year ever! Vivat Jesus Bob Plant Never have a heart attack during a game of charades. You may be a goner before they realize you re not acting! * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * One thing is true: If you think you can or even if you think you can t -- you are correct! Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Things in this issue: Grand Knight s letter Knight - Family of the Month, Degree Info Pope s Intentions for the Month, Calendar of Events for the Month of June Page 4 New Knights - and Old Knight, 2014 Officer s Slate, 2013 Scholarship Winners Page 1
Important Names/Numbers Knights of Columbus Field Agent Luke Henry (913-884-3390) Mobil: (913-568-6518) luke.henry@kofc.org Membership Director Matt Garrard 951-7669 Membershipdirector@kofc7909.org Program Director Ron Schieffer schieffr@yahoo.com Community Director Rob Couch randccouch@sbcglobal.net Pro-Life Director Dave Mulhall 782-3139 Council Director John Williams Family Director William Killian Youth Director Travis Goff Church Directors jpwill128@sbcglobal.net will@tk2.com travisjgoff@hotmail.com Gene Thomeczek 764-7006 and Frank Feindel 829-5867 Newsletter Editor Gene Thomeczek 764-7006 KofC7909@att.net Public Relations / Web John Kennedy 764-6589 Mike Hernandez 782-4260 First Degree Team Brian Miller 397-9716 Retention Tony Martini 829-8255 Knights of the Month - Rob Couch, Dan Norman and Travis Goff Submitted by Council Director John Williams The Knight of the month for April 2013 is Rob Couch. Rob is the current Community Director for Council 7909, and recently organized a clean-up of the Council's section of Mur Len from 143rd to 151st street. Even with inclement weather, Rob kept up with the plan and made sure the manpower and supplies needed to do a thorough clean up of the street were there on a Saturday morning. Rob is also very active with the Knights on the Fish Fries, Old Settlers Days, and the golf tournaments. Rob was also active on the state convention. Council 7909 could use more individuals with the dedication of Rob. For May, Dan Norman and Travis Goff shared in the award -- Dan for his services as the techie in charge of recording and broadcasting the events surrounding the Kansas State KofC Convention in May. This is just one of the many activities Dan has led during the recent past. Travis is recognized for his work with the raffle fundraiser at the State Convention. Congratulations to both these active Knights. Families of the Month - Joe & Nevada Espinosa and Ron & Lauren Schaefer Submitted by Family Director William Killian The Espinosa s are active members of the Prince of Peace Family - - Joe and two daughters, Brooklyn and Faith worked the Fish Frys this year and Nevada cooks meals for the Parish Priests. They have three other children, Anthony, Sahara and Hope and the 6th child was due on Mother s day. If that isn t enough, Joe coaches POP football and basketball teams and all their school age children attend Catholic Schools. Wow! What a family. Ron and Lauren are without a doubt involved with the Knights and the Prince of Peace Community. Ron, as Deputy Grand Knight and Program Director is involved in virtually every Knight s function. Lauren is a lector at the church and was the guest speaker at the Ladies Luncheon during the State Convention. Degree Info Submitted by Membership Director, Matt Garrard I know I sound like a broken record when I say this, but please wear your badges to Mass with you. There are strength in numbers and it is a very easy way to show your pride in being a Knight. The more they see us with our badges on, the stronger our Council will become. Before you know it, they will be asking us how to join before we have to invite them! Another important calendar date: There is a Fourth Degree on June 22 at St. Michael the Archangel Parish in Leawood. If you are interested in attending and stepping up to the highest degree in the Knights, please contact me and I will share more information with you. Helpful Florist On my wife s last birthday, I thought I would send her roses; one for every year of her life. Nice gesture I thought as I ordered the flowers. She ll realize how much I love her. My friend, a florist by trade, didn t quite understand why I d ordered so many roses -- but since I was a good friend -- he threw in an extra dozen roses. Talk about a great idea that goes awry -- my wife didn t speak to me again for a month! * * * * * * * * * * * Just before takeoff the stewardess approached LeBron James and asked him to fasten his seatbelt. Superman doesn t need a seatbelt when he flys, James answered. Well, Superman doesn t need an airplane, so buckle up or you won t be flying, she retorted. Page 2
June 2013 Holy Father s Prayer Intentions - for May 2013 Mutual Respect. That a culture of dialogue, listening, and mutual respect may prevail among peoples. New Evangelization. That where secularization is strongest, Christian communities may effectively promote a new evangelization. S M T W T F S 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 - KofC 7909 picnic at T- Bones. 9 - Corporate Communion 7am - O&D meeting follows 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17- Regular business meeting - 7:30 pm; Rosary @ 7:10 18 19 20 21 22-4th Degree at St. Michaels in Leawood 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 Upcoming Events: June 22 June 30 4th Degree at St. Michael s, Leawood Fr. Andrew s last day at Prince of Peace Parish -- come wish him well in his new assignments. Retention of Members Submitted by Church Director, Gene Thomeczek We are constantly searching for new members to add to our council. I think we all realize the enjoyment and fulfillment we get from serving our parish and our community through the council s work. As hard as we work to recruit new members it would be a shame to lose them because they don t feel welcome or that they feel that they are wasting their time showing up when no one tells them what to do and teaches them how to do it. I was recently reminded of this when a new member inadvertently lamented that he d felt useless at one of the events during the recent State Convention. I m sure we all recall that when we first started it took a while for us to learn what needed to be done and exactly how to do it. I specifically recall that the late, great Hank Stecher took me under his wing the first year I helped with the fish fry -- even though I couldn't sign all those Frank Sinatra songs like he could.. Let s all make an effort to insure our members feel welcome and that, in fact, they re an important addition to our membership. Website: www.kofc7909.org Photos: knightsofcolumbus7909.shutterfly.com/ Page 3
This is supposedly a true story. A man was stuck in traffic as he was driving home from work when a bird smashed into his windshield and got a wing stuck in his windshield wiper. When traffic began to move again, the man thought it would be a good idea to help the bird escape so he turned on his windshield wipers. Sure enough, the bird freed himself from the wiper blade and immediately flipped over the man s car and landed on the windshield of the car behind him. The card behind him happened to be a police car and within seconds, the policeman s red lights came on to signal for the driver to pull over. The policeman walked up to the man s car and when asked why he d pulled him over, the policeman said, I m giving you a ticket for flipping me the bird! * * * * * * Two Americans opened a bungee-jumping business in a suburb of Mexico City. The decided they d better check to make sure the bungee cord was the right length so one of them hooked himself up and jumped off the platform. When he rebounded to the platform his partner noticed that he had a couple of welts on his head but the man was too far from the platform to get pulled in and down he went again. The second time he rebounded he was still too far from the platform and this time he had a bloody nose and some more bumps on his head. The third time he bounced back up, the partner was able to grab him and pull him to safety. Is the cord too long, or what? asked the partner. No, the man replied, but what the heck s a piñata? At left: We welcome aboard our newest Council members: Left: Jeff Bowman and right: Jason Imlay. At Right: Phil Kaminski, one of the first KofC 7909 members receives his tenure certificate from Deputy GK Ron Schieffer. Fraternal Year 2013-2014 Officer s Slate Submitted by Deputy Grand Knight, Ron Schieffer: Grand Knight: Ron Schieffer Deputy Grand Knight: Doug Svatos Chancellor: Troy Mills Recorder: Ryan Brotherson Treasurer: Steve McBride Advocate: Matt Garrard Warden: Dave Mulhall Inside Guard: Alfredo Diaz Outside Guard: Victor Wallace First Year Trustee: Bob Plant Second Year Trustee: Bob Davis Third Year Trustee: Dennis Meehan 2013 Scholarship Winners At Left: Jaymie Bartz, up with parents; upper right, Emily Ewert with parents and lower right, Conner Haarhuis with mon. Other winners were Haley Vonfeldt and Ann Plums. Congratulations to all the winners - welldone. Page 4
Prince of Peace Church Knights of Columbus 16000 West 143rd Street Olathe, KS 66062 Return Service Requested