Knights of Columbus – Council 3205

By Grand Knight, Ron Gay:

Brothers,

It has been a busy December for our Council. As usual, we started our month with a pancake breakfast. Thanks to Russ Kellen’s team, and our Squire’s Circle for an excellent Sunday breakfast.

Next came our second annual Wine & Cheese Fundraiser. We had around 80 people attend and we raised $2,500 with our Nativity scene auction. Our Council will send $800 to six parish ministries for their participation in the Nativity scene auction. This year’s Wine & Cheese fundraiser will clear almost $3,800 for our Council’s Charity obligations. I want to lift up Darrell Lovelette for his efforts in securing the wines for the tasting from Messina Hof Winery. Thanks also to Al Mazoch and Bob Albanese for helping with the set-up. Thanks to our wine stewards C. J. Romero, Bob Albanese, Al Mazoch, Larry Hubbell, Gary Richardson, Darrell Lovelette, Don Parsons, Paul Marvin, Whitley Cave and Dan King. Aubrey Hunt provided our background music and she was fantastic.

Last Thursday night we had a fantastically successful Clergy Appreciation Dinner. We had 150 people in attendance as we offered special recognition to our Clergy. Bishop Joe Vasquez was very pleased that our Council took the time to honor all of the Priests, Deacons, and Religious in our Deanery. Thanks to Tom Zike and Michael Vidrine for all of their hardwork in organizing and setting up this year’s Clergy Dinner. Thanks to Al Mazoch, C. J. Romero, James Supak and Michael Herring for providing the Fourth Degree Color Guard. Thanks to Al Mazoch, Bob Albanese, Tom Zike, Leonard Muesse, Mark Olivieri, Russ Kellen, Michael Hlavinka, C. J. Romero, Kevin Biasiolli and Whitley Cave for helping with the set-up. Big, big thank you to Lilly Muesse who made all of the table decorations, and to Terri Gay who helped Lilly decorate the tables. Thanks also to Russ Kellen for providing the background music, and thanks to Gary Richardson and Whitley Cave who served the beer and wine. I’d like to lift up our parish STAY group and Brother Ed Styduhar for cleaning up after the dinner. Finally, I want to thank all of our Brother Knights and their wives along with the parishioners of St. Thomas Aquinas who showed up to honor our Clergy.

I want to lift up Fr. Edwin and Fr. Uche for all of their support of these important Council activities. They both played an active role in both functions and they would not have been successful without their presence and prayers of support.

Now it’s time to turn our attention to the Super Bowl Chili Cook coming up in February.

Terri and I wish each of you a very Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year! God bless you one and all, you are the greatest Knights of Columbus Council in the Order.
Ron Gay, FSD
Grand Knight

Brothers,

The 2011 gun raffle was a huge success for our Council. In spite of a down economy, our Council still managed to raise $4,738.00. I’d like to lift up our Raffle Chair, C. J. Romero, for his outstanding work on the raffle. With C. J. at the helm our Council raffle has raised $11,500.00 over the last two years! Well done C. J., well done. I also want to lift up Past Grand Knight Russ Kellen for his gift of a shot gun for this year’s raffle, thanks Brother Russ. C. J.’s leadership marshalled a lot of help from our Council members for the sale of raffle tickets, so my thanks to all of the Council members who stood out in front of Academy or Gander Mountain, or sold tickets to friends, relatives and co-workers. All of your efforts paid off for our Council’s charity efforts.

Now we must turn our attention to the Council’s next two projects. We need a lot of help to make these next two events a success.

The first event is our 2nd Annual Wine & Cheese Tasting scheduled for December 8, 2011. December 8 is a Holy Day of Obligation, The Feast of the Immaculate Conception. The Wine & Cheese Tasting will begin immediately after mass, 7:00 or so. There will be eight (8) different wines to taste and an assortment of cheeses. The event costs $25 per person. We will have our first Nativity Scene auction during this year’s tasting. So far, we have 9 Nativity scenes donated for the auction. We also have $1,500 in pledged sponsorships for the event. We will need some volunteers for this event, Brothers to pour wine, and serve. What we need most of all is people to attend the event, and encourage their friends and fellow parishoners to attend as well. We hope to raise $2,500 for our Council’s charity efforts with this Wine & Cheese Tasting.

The following week, December 15 will be our annual Clergy Appreciation Dinner. This year’s dinner will include Bishop Joe Vasquez. The dinner will begin at 6 pm in the PAC at St. Thomas Aquinas. Mike Vidrine and Tom Zike started preparing for this dinner in the early summer, and they have done an excellent job. We need assistance from the members of the Council to sell tickets after each mass starting December 3 and 4. Brothers we have to have a great showing from our local Catholics to honor our local Clergy.

Ron Gay, FSD
Grand Knight

By Grand Knight – Ron Gay

Brothers,

We had a great meeting last Wednesday, November 2, 2011. If you missed it, you missed a great time with 35 of your Brother Knights.

Deacon Dave Mayes showed a video and answered questions about the upcoming changes to the mass. Fr. Edwin was also there to help answer questions. I’d like to thank Fr. Edwin for his time with us last Wednesday. Fr. Edwin broke bread with the Council, and stayed for the whole meeting. Thank you Fr. Edwin!

We have a lot of events coming up in the next few months.

Church Activities – We need everyone to save the date, December 15, 2011. That is our Clergy Appreciation Dinner in the PAC at St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church from 6 to 9 pm. Bishop Joe Vasquez will be here, and we want to have a great turn out for his visit to our area.

Important – Brother Don Parsons also asked all of us Catholic Gentlemen to prayerfully consider participating in Eucharistic adoration, particularly during the hours from midnight to 6 am. We need real Catholic men, Chivalrous Knights, to step forward and take on this duty of staying with the Eucharist during the early morning hours, midnight to 6 am. I’ve already called and added my name to the list for the 3 to 4 am shift on Saturday mornings. I know many of you are already committed to a time slot during the early morning hours, and your to be commended. If you already have a time slot adoring the Eucharist, and it’s possible for you to change to an early morning shift, then I want to encourage you to do so. If you do not have an adoration time as of yet please call Don Parsons and arrange to serve.

Membership – Please welcome our newest member Whitley Cave. Our next first degree will be after the New Year in the middle of January.

Council – Our gun raffle is in full swing. We have a net gain from the sale of raffle tickets of $2,300 so far. Please call C. J. Romero if you need additional tickets. We have another sales opportunity on Saturday, November 5 @ Academy from 9 am to 5 pm.

The Council’s Christmas Party will be Friday, December 9, at the home of Russ Kellen.

Community – Larry Hubbell says we collected 21 pints of blood at our blood drive in October.

Thanks also to everyone who showed up and worked with the Special Olympics.

Church – The Council voted to spend up to $200 to provide food for the Deacon Formation Class for the Diocese of Austin when they meet @ St. Thomas Aquinas on December 10.

Pro-life – The Council will sponsor a table at the Good Samaritan Pregnancy Services Dinner on November 10 at St. Anthony’s Catholic Church in Bryan.

Our 2nd Annual Wine & Cheese fundraiser will be Thursday, December 8, from 7:30 to 10 pm in the PAC @ St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church. December 8 is a Holy Day of Obligation, so the Wine & Cheese event will take place after mass.

Youth – We have had four new young men join our Squires Circle.

The Council also voted to send $100 to Council 10624 at Texas A&M University. They are collecting religious supplies to send to the Catholic Chaplains in Afghanistan.

Ron Gay, FSD
Grand Knight

Brothers,

The Knights of Columbus and Special Olympics have had a close association for more than 40 years. We have several members of our parish who are Special Olympians, and there will be an opportunity for our Council(s) to help with a state tournament right here in B/CS. Please review the e-mail below and go to the Special Olympics web page and view all of the volunteer opportunities available to us. If you have time and can lend a hand, I know our Special Olympians would appreciate it. It will require very little of you except time. I’ve given out medals on several occasions and I can’t tell you how rewarding it has been We will talk more about this at our meeting tonight, but I wanted to give everyone an advanced look at what was available to us.

Furthermore if we can get 15 to 20 people to sign up, not only will that help the Special Olympics in a big way, but it will help our Council satisfy all of the “Community” requirements for our Star Council Award.

Ron Gay, FSD
Grand Knight

EMAIL:
Ron,
Thank you so much for your email. I have spoken to our awards directors for Games about your participation and they said they would love to have some Knights help cover awards positions. We will be having awards at Aquatics, Flag Football, Veterans Park, and Golf. Our volunteer sign ups are now live on our website, so please take a look and see if any of those shifts fit into your schedules. Of course, if you would prefer another type of shift, that is also an option.

Here is the registration link: http://sotx.org/news-events/news/2011/volunteer-at-fall-classic.html

Please let me know if I can help you with any other questions.

Judy Yoshimaru
Director of Volunteer Services
Special Olympics Texas
512.491.2947
www.sotx.org

Dear Brother Knights,

St. Thomas’ very own Peter Ramirez will be on the Labor Day Telethon on KBTX.  His parents are Marla and Trey Ramirez.  Peter has spinal muscular atrophy and his goal is to raise $800 for MDA.  You can visit his secure website at https://www.joinmda.org/MyEvent/MyHomepage/tabid/221807/Participant/ramirezmarla/Default.aspx   to donate.  Please pass to other parishioners and friends.  You will start to see promotional clips on KBTX with Peter and his family and the family will be interviewed live on Sunday night.  He has $600.00!  Let’s far exceed the $800.00.

Many Blessings to you and your family!

Roger R. Martinez ’85