Dear Brother Knights & Ladies:

As you peruse through this bulletin or wander through the shopping malls we are reminded of the Christmas Season.

Let us keep in mind that the real meaning of Christmas is “Celebrating the Birth of Christ”. We are called to be more Christ like and charity is one avenue. As I mentioned previously charity comes in different forms. It can be simple gestures. Sincerely wish someone a Merry Christmas or if in the checkout at a grocery store & the person ahead of you is a little short of funds, instead of them having to put some items back cover the difference. You may be surprised how good it makes you feel knowing you helped someone out.

As you read through this bulletin decide what you can also do to participate in events mentioned.

Our Boston Pizza fundraiser was a good success. The funds raised will be forwarded to St. Vincent de Paul. Thanks to those who contributed.

Our Ham Sales Fundraiser is underway. Please support it.

Our Christmas Dinner is coming up Friday December 11^th. Tickets are $20.00 each. Hopefully you can attend.

Your Grand Knight

John J. Price

Dear Brother Knights:

On November 1^st we will be again holding our Memorial Service in conjunction with the CWL and the Bereavement Committee. This will take place at St. Joseph’s Church at 7 PM with refreshments following the service. Mark your calendar, if you cannot be present offer a prayer for those Brothers who passed on this past year & their families left to mourn. (Larry Lemenchick, Peter Klomp & George Heisz)

Our Thursday Morning Breakfasts are again in full swing. We need additional brothers to come out. Talk with your morning coffee group & suggest that you meet at our breakfast once or twice a month at 8:30 AM

Again this year we will be holding our Christmas Ham Sales Fundraiser. More to follow in the next bulletin. We are trying to hold the costs.

Keeping those who missed our council meeting informed, we received our share cheque from the Ontario State Raffle. Since our council was in the top sales grouping, Br. Jim Gaylor was part of a conference call re the 2016 raffle discussions. To date, no word on when we will be receiving our 2016 tickets to sell.

We also welcomed two brothers, Will Van Stratten who took his 1^st degree and John Bettridge who has been reinstated.

Grand Knight

John J. Price

Dear Brother Knights:

As everyone knows the 1^st Principle of our order is Charity. Charity is not only monetary although this is what I am addressing in this month’s bulletin.

Recently St. Vincent De Paul has increased what they are providing to those requiring assistance.

In addition to Food, on a rotating as needed bases, dish detergent, toiletries, socks and mitts, and paper products have been added. Of course this requires additional revenue. Our council has always supported them.

For this reason at our August Council Meeting we approved donating the profits from our Boston Pizza Fundraiser on October 19, 2015 to St. Vincent De Paul.

Boston Pizza has provided us with 120 tickets. Tickets are $ 20 each with our council receiving ½ of the ticket value.

Let’s make this a special “Knight” by selling out. Bring family & friends.

Several brothers have tickets including Mike Lobsinger, Jim Gaylor and myself.

We are now on Facebook thanks to Br. Mike Mooney (reference below). Events such as The Boston Pizza will be posted there along with other council information.

John J. Price

Grand Knight

Dear Brother Knights

I am sure everyone has noticed that the daylight in getting shorter. With this comes start of school and our fraternal year gets into full swing. I urge you to become involved in our council activities. If you can no longer help out with fundraising activities you can still be involved by attending council meetings or coming out to other events like our Thursday morning breakfasts. Those who do attend enjoy the comradery.

Our walk -a- thon that was held on June 13^th was again successful. We will be presenting a cheque to St. Joseph’s Restoration fund in the amount of $ 10, 887.89. Brothers we are getting close to our $50,000 pledge, less than $ 5000.00 to go.

A decision has been made to discontinue our Share the Wealth monthly draw fundraiser. The main reason is profits have dwindled to the point that we may not sell sufficient tickets to cover the expense of the fundraiser. That being said it will be $2,500 which is not available to give out to our local charities. I urge you to come up with ideas to replace this revenue.

There are two events coming up in September.

On Thursday September 10^th there will be a Corn Roast & Hot Dogs at our hall. This is a night of fellowship put on by the Shriners. Last year’s event was well attended.

Our annual St. Anthony’s Mass that the Knight’s provide refreshments following the mass, will be held sunshine or rain on Sunday September 13^th. If you have not been to this mission church I urge you to attend.

Grand Knight

John J. Price

Dear Brother Knights,

I want to thank all the Brothers who have agreed to form our Council Executive for the upcoming term of which I have the honour to be The Grand Knight.

I also want to remind brothers that it is all of you in our council that make us who we are and what we are about by the events that we organize and participate in, such as the barbequing that we provided at the “Relay For Life”.

I also want to point out that we financially support many charities throughout the year (annually $20,000 to $25,000). I know many members are busy with work & family commitments, but please try to set aside some time to help out. To those brothers whose health does not allow this, I thank them for their past services. We are always looking for new ideas to assist our council in raising charitable money, like our new Boston Pizza night fundraiser. Any ideas are worth consideration. An old fundraiser “Share The Wealth” monthly draw profits for this year are down to less the $2,500. The expense to run this draw is $14,500 to $15,000 per year. It is getting to the position that the risk is too great to continue. A decision on whether to run another Share the Wealth will be made shortly.

Expenses at the State level never go down and there is constant pressure to increase dues. Considerable savings can be achieved if members agree to allow State to use their e-mail address to send out correspondence vs mailing to over 50,000 members. Tony Vigar sent out an e-mail to brothers requesting their approval. Your address will not be given out to anyone by the board. If you have not yet responded I urge you to do so.

We will not have a Council Meeting in July only an Executive Meeting on July 6^th at 7:45PM when we will make our monthly share the wealth draw.

Your Grand Knight

John J. Price

Dear Brother Knights

My time as Grand Knight is coming to an end. The two years have been both a learning and a rewarding experience for me. I learned that as the person in charge, ‘the buck stops here’ and at the same time I learned the value of having dedicated and dependable people around to help. Thank you to the executive members for your help and advice and as well as to many other brother Knights who step up and make this a very good Council.

I send a special thank you to my wife Pat for her support these past two years. I believe I speak for many other Knights as well when I say that spouses play an important role in making our Council successful.

New members are looking for an opportunity to participate in Council activities. Invite them to take part when you are planning an event. The availability of members to be involved changes over time. Family and job responsibilities and our health change. Let’s not forget members who have been with Council for many years and may just need an invitation to get involved once again.

There are few changes in the executive positions for the next year. This experienced group will do great work in support of newly elected Grand Knight, John Price. Best wishes to everyone in 2015-16.Enjoy the summer.

Dave Wilby

Grand Knight

Dear Brother Knights,

Mother Nature seemed to make the Lenten season a bit more difficult for us with a prolonged cold spell this year. But signs of spring are showing and we have rejoiced and celebrated in the joy of Easter. Pat and I extend our Easter best wishes to everyone.

I continue to be encouraged by the involvement of our members in the work of Council and in the community. Thank you to everyone who has responded to the call to serve in whatever way you can. We are people of hope – may you share this hope with others.

You will notice in the coming events that there will be opportunities to come together and celebrate in the coming weeks. Boston Pizza night on Monday April 20, Council BBQ Thursday June 4, and the Walk-a-thon on Sunday June 14 are some of the events.

It is very important for our organization that we engage the new members and other members who have not seen where they can become active in Council activities. Bingo is always in need of people to be back up on short notice when something prevents a team member from attending a scheduled bingo. This is the main source of monies that we give to charity. Another area needing members to pitch-in is in the sale of Share the Wealth tickets. Revenue is down from these sales and fresh blood and new ideas are needed.

As we move into the month of May, Marion month, may the mother of Jesus be our source of inspiration to lead our Christian life.

Dave Wilby

Grand Knight