Welcome to the December 2024 edition of our Council newsletter!

As usual, here are a few quick but important items up-front before we get into the news.

• Our next regular business meeting will be Wednesday, December 11th, starting at 7:30 p.m. All members are welcome. We'll be serving dinner for members around 6:30 for only $5.

• Our Christmas Party for adults is Saturday, December 21st at 6:00 p.m. in our Council Hall. Please see the item below for details - and join us!

• Thanks to all of our members and Ladies Auxiliary who turned out on Tuesday, December 3rd, as we joined with KofC councils around the nation to "Light Up for Christ." The tree lighting was preceded by caroling around the tree and was once again led by our own DGK John Crecco on his guitar. A fine time was had by one and all!

• Thanks also to all of our members and especially our Ladies Auxiliary for another wonderful Holiday on the Lake, with the best ever Our Christmas Village and a nice showing in the Carmel Parade of Lights.

Mingle & Jingle at the Council Christmas Party on 12/21

Another fun and festive tradition continues with our Adult Christmas Party for members of our Council and Ladies Auxiliary on Saturday, December 21st at 6:00 p.m., jointly hosted with the Fourth Degree Sir Knights of Mother Cabrini Assembly.

We'll have a complimentary (free!), informal, but very tasty hot buffet dinner including appetizers and favorite holiday selections. There will also be a cash bar and, for a special treat, members of our Ladies Auxiliary will once again be putting out a great spread for the dessert table.

All we ask is that each person bring a supermarket gift card for the less fortunate in our community, to brighten their Christmas season by helping them put good meals on the table for their families.

This year we are once again collecting donations for the St. James the Apostle Church Food Pantry. The pantry is typically well stocked with canned goods and other non-perishables, but what they need is supermarket gift cards so families can buy perishable items like milk, meats, fresh vegetables and frozen foods, which the pantry cannot stock.

So, please bring ShopRite or Tops gift cards to our party, and we will present them to St. James on behalf of the Knights and our families. The suggested minimum donation is $20 per person, but be as generous as you like.

Since we started this tradition, we've collected over $15,775 in gift card donations to those in need. So let's show our Christmas spirit and do it again for our parish and our community!

Winter Holiday Blood Drive SATURDAY 12/28

Donate by Appointment (Preferred)

Donors and Volunteers Needed

BRING IN THE NEW YEAR DOWN A PINT!

Join us at our winter holiday blood drive, set for SATURDAY, DECEMBER 28th from 10:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. at the Carmel Veterans of Foreign Wars hall, located at 32 Gleneida Avenue (Route 52).

As usual for this time of year, the blood supply is at a critical level!

We are once again encouraging donors to make an appointment. To make an appointment online, please visit the NY Blood Center web site Donor Portal by clicking here.

Or to schedule an appointment by phone, please call 1-800-933-2566.

We need volunteers to help with set up (at 8:00 a.m.), throughout the drive, and with at breakdown (at 6:45 p.m.).

We’re sorry to announce that we will one again have to forgo our Michelin starred hot and cold buffet.

But we’re happy to announce -- just in time for the New Year celebration -- your choice of a HOLIDAY BEANIE or the highly acclaimed, with family heirloom status, NY Blood Center HOLIDAY SOCKS!

And courtesy of FIDDLERS GREEN PUB, the PINT for a PINT is back! For your donation of a PINT, you will receive a coupon for a PINT of fermented draft beverage, or a pint of carbonated sugar water.

We hope you can once again join our members and Ladies Auxiliary, along with the Driscoll Lodge of the Fraternal Order of Police, members of the FDNY, and Guardian Revival in this absolutely critical blood drive.

REMEMBER TO PLEASE MAKE AN APPOINTMENT.

Any questions or concerns, or if you wish to volunteer, please call GK Rick Kreps at (845) 225-6318, or Denis Hanrahan at 845-300-0428, or visit www.nybc.org.

The 9th Annual "J.O." Men's Beefsteak - Jan. 18th

SEATING IS VERY LIMITED

THIS WILL SELL OUT!

DONATE TO OUR AUCTIONS & RAFFLE TABLE

Join us for our Ninth Annual James "J.O." O'Neill Memorial Men's Beefsteak Dinner on Saturday, January 18, 2024!

We continue the tradition started by J.O. by gathering at our Council to enjoy outstanding food, watch the NFL Playoffs on our big screen UHD-TVs, and have lots of fun while we raise funds for a great cause right here in our own community.

This year our funds will once again be earmarked for St. James the Apostle Parish!

Doors open at 3 p.m. for the afternoon playoff game and cash bar. Dinner at halftime of the first game (approx. 6 p.m.) includes our signature, charcoal grilled gourmet filet mignon, fries, draft beer or wine, dessert and coffee. Stay after dinner and watch the evening playoff game with us.

$60 if prepaid by Jan. 12 - $70 after Jan. 12 and at the door (unless we're sold out).

SEATING IS LIMITED & WE TYPICALLY SELL OUT, SO RESERVE TODAY!

You can purchase tickets at our December general business meeting on 12/11 by cash, check, or credit card. You may also mail your check and list of guests to: BEEFSTEAK, KofC Council 6318, 10 Fair Street, Carmel NY 10512.

IMPORTANT NOTE: To make this fundraiser a success, we need donations of items for our live auction and raffle table, including sporting event tickets, theater tickets, gift certificates to local restaurants and other businesses, items for gift baskets, and stays in vacation homes. Please contact GK Rick about any donations you may be interested in making or soliciting for us.

Contact GK Rick Kreps (gk@carmelknights.org) or (917) 304-5378 with questions or to donate raffle / auction items.

Operation "Turkeys Away" Returns for 2024

Always embracing the first principle of our Order -- Charity -- our Council continues to make a difference right here in Putnam County. Outreach to those in need is never more important than during the holidays.

We continued our recent tradition of donating turkeys to needy families in time for Thanksgiving. This year, we assisted even more local people in need by distributing 92 turkeys and 100 ShopRite $25 gift cards through Putnam's Community Opportunity Program (C.A.P.). We also donated eight turkeys to St. James the Apostle School.

Thanks once again to Treasurer Rich Dambra for sourcing and purchasing the turkeys, and arranging for their distribution. And thanks to our members for their generosity in approving the donation of $4,400 to make the purchase of these gifts possible.

Fourth Degree News

The next meeting of Mother Cabrini Assembly will be Thursday, December 19th at our Council.

The meeting will begin at 7:30 p.m. in our Council Hall. All Fourth Degree Sir Knights are welcome and encouraged to attend the meeting.

Collection for the VA Hospitals

Prior to the pandemic, the Assembly was very involved with our local Veterans Administration hospitals (Montrose, Castle Point). They conducted drives for books, backpacks, and comfort items, and even sponsored pizza parties for the resident patients. They have been looking to restart their support of our local veterans in the VA hospitals, and a first step will be collecting clothing and food pantry items from the VA Hudson Valley Wish List. Please click here for the list of goods needed and bring your donations to the December meeting on 12/19, or the Christmas Party on 12/21. If you cannot attend either, please contact FN Seamus Baker to find out how you can get us your donation.

2025 Dinner Raffle Tickets Now Available!

The Assembly is getting a head start on their 2025 "A Night Out on the Sir Knights" Year of Dinners Raffle so that tickets are available during the holidays. They make nice stocking-stuffers, and holiday gatherings are a great time to give tickets to your friends and family members while they're in a jolly mood. They'll have tickets available at the next meeting on December 19, but there’s no need to wait until then. Contact FN Seamus (sbakerquin@zoho.com or 845-282-2554) and he'll arrange to get members tickets to sell. And you can speak to any Sir Knight about buying tickets.

Special Fourth Degree Exemplification 2/22/2025

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.) 

• Jan. 7 (Tue): Crèche Take-down - We're planning to take down the Nativity Scene at St. James, weather permitting, starting at 10 a.m. Please watch our social media for confirmation / updates as we get closer to the date. We'll need the usual tools. If there is snow on the ground, we'll also need a few snow shovels.