The parish is mildly concerned over the fact that volunteerism is down, according to a meeting Tom Silver sat in on, the night of the ministries BBQ. I have few thoughts we could discuss in the future that I’d like to throw out there. Perhaps the spirit of volunteerism is alive and well at HNOJ. I think in a parish like HNOJ, where so many parishioners are so active, so often, some assumptions get made like; “I don’t need to show up. There will be lots of people there. They don’t need me.” Sometimes I think that happens at our KC Council level too. We only had 3 guys show up to grill the food for the Ministry crowd on May 15th, which was adequate to serve, but not a good showing. One of the blessings we have is the KC Grill that Chuck Grabowski welded up for us. It brings us together almost like a camp fire. The parish sees us all socializing around the grill and they get a little envious of our camaraderie. We still need to be highly visible to grow into the next phase as a council. I think we ramped up OK, but now we need to fill in some of the gaps to be a well established KC Council.
When we first formed this KC Council, the first four Grand Knights were elected by default, as we were the only ones who could or would serve those positions. The entire council had to be everything to every one and be ready to be what ever office there was a need to fill at any point in time. All of had to volunteer for every event we sponsored, all had to know every offices duties and be ready to fill in as necessary. No complaints, however, as we had a blast doing it all. We got lucky and were well received by the parish even though we made a few mistakes along the way. Thank God none of them came back to bite us later. As we grew, we were blessed in getting guys like Steve Zylla, Greg Hegi, Dave Stumpf, and Jim Seifert which enabled us to take on more projects i.e. six breakfasts/year, the alter servers night of appreciation, the VBS picnic, the fall festival, staff appreciation dinner, HNOJ Ministries special night and ultimately the Wednesday Night Fine Dining, which is our greatest contribution to the overall parish.
I’d like to reiterate a point I made a year ago relating to taking ownership of the council. Anyone and everyone should feel free to take ownership of all we do for HNOJ. You all play a roll, whether it’s on a committee for either the KC’s or the parish, whether you volunteer for breakfast or bring your whole family to eat at breakfast and whether you just pay your dues, which benefits many of us who use the multiple grants and scholarships and special benefits the KC’s offer their members. It also benefits me in recruiting new members when I can count you in our numbers and point out similar situations and time constraints that each person struggles with. Let’s just call it commonality that we have with one another.
Denny Madden is a prime example of someone who takes ownership of the council. He holds no office but continually finds worthy Catholic and HNOJ projects for us to support. Several times a year, he shows up at a meeting with a baseball field project or a pro-life concern or a speaker we need to engage. He comes prepared with all the info and follow-up recourse and we vote. Nice and simple. Please take ownership of the KC’s.
One of the most recently exciting things I saw was at the May dinner meeting. The list of new and future officers of the Good Samaritan Council is stellar. Pat Karn will be the Grand Knight next year. It will be the 2nd time he’s been a GK, as he served his last council in the same office. He will need little or no time to launch his term. On Pat’s heals as Deputy Grand Knight, is Jim Seifert. Jim is a successful business consultant with tremendous capabilities and is probably already preparing for his term as GK, following Pat. Jim Grube committed to the job of Chancellor and will move through the chain of command to be Deputy GK then GK after Jim Seifert. I challenge anyone to find someone with better organizational skills in all of HNOJ than Jim Grube. The caliber of the next set of KC Council officers is beyond what any council in the country could ever hope for. Tom Silver and I are committed to be the best Trustees we can be and will make our selves available to assist in any way to take this council to the next step. I’ve been approached by others who want to be more involved in 3 years or so and would encourage you all to pray about your involvement and assure you it won’t hurt your marriage or relationship with your kids. Inversely, it will enhance family relationships and pave the way for other family members to step it up a notch in volunteering for other things going on in the parish and community.
If you have students intending to apply for “reach schools” for college acceptance, they cannot get an invite without documented service projects. They no longer want to recruit just brain-iacks, but young people who will get involved in college service work and “greater good” kinds of school sponsored projects. Many of the KC’s service projects we and our families do at HNOJ qualified my kids to get into the schools they wanted. They took it upon themselves to work on Habitat Homes, Fr. Wasson’s orphanage and other service projects, but I think it was easier for them because we involved them at a young age to work our KC functions.
Most of you wish you did more with the council, but find it difficult to adjust your schedules. Don’t keep any small desire to become more involved with KC business, a secret. If some of the upcoming officers are people you want to work with in the future, tell them to keep you in mind when it’s their turn to run the council. They will gladly find room for you. Let’s continue to show the parish what volunteerism is all about by leading the way.
Have a great summer,