Knights of Columbus – Council 3205

by Grand Knight: Ron Gay

Brothers,

We had an excellent meeting on February 1, with 40 members in attendance. Our program was the director of Scotty’s House, a sanctuary for abused children.

We welcomed four of our five new brother knights to the meeting, Carlos Guadarrama-Perez, Gus Roman, Matt Tennis, and Shane McAuliffe. We have ten new members recruited this year, while our Star Council goal is 17 new members and six new insurance members. Our Council’s next first degree will be Thursday, March 1 in Zurek Hall.

In the Grand Knight’s Report I spoke about current attack on religious liberties in this country. The Bishop’s letter to faithful was just the first step, we have to reach out to our elected representatives and ask for their help for an exemption from the HHS mandate. I was pleased that all forty members signed letters to Representative Bill Flores and Senators Cornyn and Hutchison. We also talked about the Komen Foundation’s decision to defund Planned Parenthood. It turns out that our enthusiasm was premature, so we have decided to wait before sending a thank you note and a check to the Komen Foundation.

Darrell Lovelette and I were elected to represent the Council at the Texas State Convention, April 27-29 in Houston. Brothers Paul Marvin and C. J. Romero will be our alternates.

Our treasurer reported that we have $10,938.20 in our operating account, and we have $5,420.56 in our charity account. So far, we have collected $949.35 in dues through our paypal account.

The Financial Secretary reported that we have collected $3,631.50 in dues for 2012. We billed out $10,240.00 in December. We have more than 130 members who owe us one or more years of dues totaling $13,238.00. Our total membership now stands at 286.

We have a lot of Council activities during the month of February.

February 5 is our Super Bowl of Chili. Our members made over 400 quarts of chili. Sales were brisk, and so was the weather. It looks like we will net close to $1,800 on this project.

February 10 we will partner with the Women’s Guild for the Marriage Liturgy in the PAC at St. Thomas Aquinas. Mass starts at 6:30 pm followed by a catered meal for $40 per couple.

Lenten meals will start Friday, February 24, in the PAC at St. Thomas Aquinas. Leonard Muesse has done a great job of putting the Lenten meals together again this year. We will not be serving fried fish every week this year, Leonard has changed the menu up some, and I think you’re going to like it.

Our January pancake breakfast netted $175.00 for the International Wheelchair Foundation. The proceeds from our February pancake breakfast will be donated to St. Thomas Aquinas for a AED machine.

Since our last meeting the Council has donated $500 to the Coalition For Life, $250 to NET Ministries, $250 to Paul Piega, a new seminarian we have adopted. We also bought a KofC retirement annuity for Fr. Uche.

We look forward to seeing you at our next Council meeting on Wednesday, March 7.

Ron Gay, FSD
Grand Knight

By Leonard Muesse

Brother Knights,

Gary and I would like to express our sincere appreciation to all of you that worked so diligently to make our 2012 Super Bowl Chili Cook Fundraiser such a huge success! We had a great turnout of volunteers and had a very busy morning. It was great to see some of our new members involved as well! This is our 4th year with this fundraiser and everyone and everything worked like a well oiled machine! We cooked 414 quarts this year, up from 356 quarts last year. Even though we did not sell out and had chili leftover, there is no price that can be put on the great fellowship that our Council members had with this fundraiser. As all of us Brother Knights know, fellowship and organization comes before profit and this is what happened with this fundraiser.

We have an estimated 53 quarts left over that are still for sale in the freezer if anybody wants to buy some more. Just let me know.
The estimated profit from this fundraiser to date is: $1,768.60.

Fraternally,
Leonard Muesse
979-777-6901
lmuesse@suddenlink.net

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Choose Life License Plate Coming to Texas!
November 16, 2011

Dear Norma,
The 10-year effort to create a pro-life specialty license plate in Texas has finally met with success, and the Choose Life license plate will soon be a reality!

Thanks to the support of the Texas Legislature, Gov. Rick Perry, Attorney General Greg Abbott, and thousands of pro-lifers across the state, a specialty license plate with the message “Choose Life” will be available for purchase by the end of November. Out of the more than 150 specialty license plates in Texas, the Choose Life license plate is the only one to promote the loving option of adoption wherever you drive.

The Choose Life license plate promotes infant adoption as a compassionate alternative to abortion. When you purchase a Choose Life license plate, $22 of the $30 annual fee will go to a fund administered by Attorney General Greg Abbott, who will give grants only to qualified pro-life organizations that offer assistance to pregnant women considering placing their children for adoption. Those organizations include pregnancy resource centers, Gabriel Projects, maternity homes, and adoption agencies. Organizations like Planned Parenthood, which perform or promote abortion, are not eligible. (The remaining $8 covers state and county administrative costs.)

As the official state sponsor organization of the Choose Life license plates, we are excited to announce that Texas Alliance for Life has begun a statewide tour to promote the purpose and sale of the Choose Life license plates. We are calling our multi-city speaking tour the Choose Life Texas Tour. We will equip the grassroots with important information and statistics about adoption and what individuals can do to help us save lives by getting the message out effectively.

Having a local contact is very important in organizing the Choose Life Texas Tour. Would you help us find a venue like a private home for a reception, pro-life meetings, civic organization meetings, church ministry fairs, etc.? If you are interested in helping organize an event in your area to promote infant adoption through the Choose Life license plate, please send us an email at chooselife@texasallianceforlife.org.

This is one of those wonderful opportunities where you can make a huge difference for life in your own community. If you aren’t able to help plan a local event, perhaps you would consider a donation to help the success of the Choose Life Texas Tour. Please donate online HERE or click on the Donate now! button. (Please note “Choose Life” in the comment section.)

Please watch our website for the Choose Life Texas Tour schedule, and we hope to see you when we are in your area!

Sincerely,
Joe Pojman, Ph.D.
Executive Director

by GK Ron Gay

Brothers,

Council 3205 hosted a First Degree this evening in which 19 new members were inducted. Please join me in welcoming five (5) new members into Council 3205 in College Station; Gustavo Roman, Mike Pawelek, Matt Tennis, Carlos Guadarrama-Perez, and Shane McAuliffe. Our Council has inducted ten (10) new members this year for a net gain of eight (8) new members. We need seventeen (17) new members to reach our Star Council goal. I want to thank our Membership Director, Brother Richard Darnell, for the excellent job he is doing in recruiting new members. However, we are only half way to our goal, so we need to keep recruiting.

I also want to thank our Degree Team of Gary Richardson, Michael Hlavinka, Adrian Martinez, Al Mazoch, and Ray Thomas for their excellent work. Nineteen new members were exemplified tonight, twelve (12) for Council 10624 at Texas A&M, five (5) for Council 3205 in College Station and two (2) for Council 11759 in Bryan.

Our next first degree will be Thursday, March 1 in Zurek Hall @ St. Thomas Aquinas in College Station. If you have a prospect invite them to come to the new member orientation that starts at 6:30 pm.

Ron Gay, FSD
Grand Knight