Happy New Year and welcome to the January 2025 edition of our Council newsletter!

A few quick but important items up-front before we get into the news.

• Our next regular business meeting will be Wednesday, January 8th, starting at 7:30 p.m. Dinner for $5 will be at 6:30, as usual. All members are welcome.

• Nativity Scene Take-down - We will be taking down the St. James Nativity Scene on Tuesday, January 7th, starting at 10:00 a.m. Volunteers are welcome and appreciated. We will need the usual tools and a ladder or two. Fortunately, this year we will not have to move too much snow and ice!

• A very special thanks once again to Clancy Relocation & Logistics for taking such good care of our recently refurbished nativity scene figures. Clancy created special packing crates for each figure to protect them in transit and while in storage. They delivered the figures to us after Thanksgiving and will be packing them up, transporting, and storing them for us once again until we need them in November. All of this is done at no cost to our Council or our parish!

• Beefsteak will be SOLD OUT soon! - Our Men's Beefsteak on Saturday, January 18th, is close to being sold out. This is our annual major fundraiser for St. James parish! If you made your reservation, please turn in your payment to GK Rick or Treasurer Rich Dambra as soon as possible. If you have not yet reserved your seat, your can reserve and pay at our meeting on Wednesday, January 8th. Please bring your donations of wine and spirits for the Basket of Cheer raffle, as well as sporting event tickets, theater tickets, gift certificates to local restaurants and other businesses, and stays in vacation homes for our raffles and auctions. We count on these donations to raise enough funds to meet our fundraising goal for St. James. Please also note that we will need volunteers both before and after the event to help with setting up, prep, serving, and -- most importantly -- cleanup! Please speak with GK Rick if you are interested in helping out.

• Longest Drive Contest at Beefsteak! Something new at this year's Beefsteak will be the Longest Drive Contest to be played on our golf simulator. The entry fee is $20 and please bring your own driver. Proceeds will help increase our donation to St. James Parish, so get in on the fun!

• Help Wanted! - Our Home Corporation is looking for bartenders to keep our lounge up and running to serve our members and guests. They are also looking for trade professionals to assist with the addition to the back of our building. If you are interested in helping out in any capacity, please speak with Corporation President Mike Tomassi or Vice President Anthony Falco.

• $1,685 for the Parish Food Pantry! - Thanks to the generosity of our members and our guests, our annual Adult Christmas Party on December 21st raised $1,685 in gift cards for the St. James the Apostle Food Pantry to help local families in need. This year's party was a fun night that offered an outstanding hot dinner buffet - a feast! -- and the Ladies Auxiliary did not disappoint with another incredible dessert table. Over the years, our Christmas Parties have raised over $17,460 for the parish food pantry! Thanks to all our members who attended for making it such a success, and to our St. James clergy for joining us, and for the grace and blessing delivered by our Chaplain, Fr. Quarato. And of course, special thanks to our Kitchen Crew, volunteers, and bartenders for throwing us all such a great Christmas party!

• There will be a "Celebrating Democracy" Inaugural Party on Monday, January 20th starting at 11:00 a.m. For admission, please bring a dish for the Pot Luck table.

• Admission Degree - Friday, February 21 - We will be hosting the Exemplification of Charity, Unity and Fraternity on Friday evening, February 21st. Candidates should arrive at 6:00 p.m. properly attired. The degree will begin at 7:00 p.m. and takes approximately 30 minutes. Food will be served for our new members and the members observing the degree. Please speak with GK Rick or Chancellor Peter Carey if you know of a Catholic gentleman wishing to join our Order and our Council.

Winter Blood Drive Helps Ease Local Blood Shortage

A great big THANK YOU to our cadre of dedicated volunteers, and to all of the amazing donors in our community, for making our 2024 Winter Holiday Blood Drive on December 28th another amazing success.

We collected 104 units of blood! This is a very respectable number considering that we had to move the drive from our usual Friday to a Saturday, and that a lot of people were under the weather with the various bugs that were going around.

Over the last 27 years of holding our winter and summer blood drives, we've collected an amazing total of 4,517 units of blood!

The Greater New York Blood Bank always reports blood shortages around the Christmas and New Year's holiday period, and this year we once again found ourselves in a serious blood shortage emergency. The need for blood is always heightened at this time of year for a variety of reasons, and we expected turnout to be low with so many people suffering from a variety of respiratory illnesses. But once again, our members came through in a pinch!

Sincere thanks to all the donors, and also to all the volunteers who help make this happen, especially our own brother Knight Denis Hanrahan, for whom organizing our summer and winter blood drives is a labor of love.

Fraternal Activity Survey Time

At the Knights of Columbus Annual Convention this past summer, Supreme Knight Patrick E. Kelly announced that Knights spent more than 47 million hours “serving and sacrificing for the sake of others,” and set a new record for charitable giving: $190 million!

After 14 years, the Order's Coats for Kids program just handed out its one millionth coat this winter. In partnership with the Global Wheelchair Mission, Knights continue to help those who have lost limbs or cannot walk. Last year, we gave the gift of mobility to more than 11,000 people.

And we continue to serve persons with physical and intellectual disabilities through our partnership with Special Olympics. We helped organize nearly 4,000 competitions last year, and we donated more than $4 million to make Special Olympics a success.

Supreme Council counts on each member council to submit an Annual Survey of Fraternal Activity by January 31st in order capture data on all of the amazing work that we do that would otherwise go uncounted in the annual statistics.

If you wish to report your charitable service in 2024, please click this link and return the Individual Member Worksheet to GK Rick Kreps. Please note that you may report activities performed with our Council or on your own.

And thank you for all that you do to make our Council and our Order so special!

Tickets On Sale for Comedy Night - March 29th

Make your reservations for another fun-filled night as comedy dinner theater returns to our Council on Saturday, March 29, 2025.



We will provide a list of scheduled performers in our next newsletter, but if you've been to one of these before, you know that the night always features several top-notch headliners known for their appearances in premier comedy clubs, on television and in movies, and in the theater. They never disappoint and that's why we always sell-out!

For only $100 you'll get an outstanding show, a full hot buffet dinner with appetizers and dessert catered by Luigi's Famiglia Cucina, and an open bar! Doors open at 6 p.m., dinner buffet starts at 7 p.m., and showtime is 8 p.m.

Advanced reservations and ticket prepayment are required to hold your seat. For tickets, please contact Bobby Palazzo at 845-216-1997 or Charlie Grimmer at 845-222-7392.

Fourth Degree News

MEETING NOTICE

The next meeting of Mother Cabrini Assembly will be Thursday, January 16th, at our Council. The meeting will begin at 7:30 p.m.

Members will be able to purchase and pick up tickets to sell for the Assembly's 2025 "Night Out on the Sir Knights" Year of Dinners Raffle. Please bring in your stubs and money for tickets you have sold.

We also plan to prepare our annual dues mailing, so volunteers are requested to assist with the effort before the meeting.

All Fourth Degree Sir Knights are welcome and encouraged to attend.

NEWS

Special Fourth Degree Exemplification 2/22/2025

LAST CALL - APPLICATIONS DUE BEFORE 1/20 !!!

There will be a very special Fourth Degree Exemplification ceremony on February 22, 2025, at St. Patrick's Cathedral in Manhattan to celebrate the 125th anniversary of the Fourth Degree. This will be the premiere of the Revised Patriotic Degree, which will be open to family and friends to observe.

After the ceremony, an Anniversary Mass will be concelebrated by our Worthy Supreme Chaplain, Archbishop William E. Lori, and His Eminence, Timothy Michael Cardinal Dolan. A banquet will follow at the New York Hilton - Midtown Manhattan.

The Exemplification and Mass are open to the public and no ticket is required. Candidates must pre-register by January 20, 2025, and the fee is $60. The banquet is not open to the public and you must purchase a ticket for $125 to attend. (If a candidate purchases two banquet tickets, his exemplification fee will be waived.)

IF INTERESTED, COMPLETE THE FORM 4 APPLICATION, GET IT SIGNED BY FS MIKE RAMA, AND RETURN IT TO FN SEAMUS BAKER IMMEDIATELY SO THAT IT CAN BE SUBMITTED BY JANUARY 20TH!

• Feb 7 (Fri): St. Pat's Parade Grand Marshal Installation Dinner - The Grand Marshal Installation Dinner for the 48th Annual Northern Westchester/Putnam St. Patrick’s Day Parade will be on Friday, February 7th starting at 6:00 p.m. at Centennial Golf Club in Carmel. $50 per person, pay at the door. This is always an enjoyable evening and seating is limited! So please let the Grand Knight or our parade rep, PGK Mike McDonald, know if you are coming so we can save enough seats.

• Feb 9 (Sun): Super Bowl Party - Join us for our annual family-friendly Super Bowl party. Enjoy the games on ultra-HDTVs. Doors and our Lounge open at 4 p.m. Some snacks and wedges will be provided, but the best part of the party is our Pot Luck Dinner. So bring an appetizer or entree (preferably in a foil half-tray) and enjoy the buffet! Desserts are also welcome.

• Feb 14 (Fri): Karaoke Night - Warm up those vocal chords, pick out your song, and come down to the Council for a fun-filled night of karaoke on Valentine's Day. More details to be announced, but save the date!

• Mar 1 (Sat): "Night of Fun and Excitement!" - Save the date for what promises to be another great Council event.

• Fish Fry Fridays begin March 7th! - There will be a staff meeting / planning session for Fish Fry in late February in our Council Hall. All are welcome to attend and join the Fish Fry Crew! We always need help in a variety of capacities and locations, each Friday night for six weeks in Lent. Please watch for the meeting date in next month's Lake Current.