Our fraternal year is two-thirds complete but the home stretch remains and what is accomplished in the final one-third of our year will tell the true story of our accomplishments. Our results thus far are to be respected and look encouraging as we are very close to our records set last year for dollars collected in the Tootsie Roll Drive and dollars pledged in the Adopt-A-Seminarian Program. Our membership numbers are looking excellent in many parts of the state and the contagious enthusiasm is growing by leaps and bounds in membership recruitment!! The Venerable Father Michael J. McGivney is surely smiling at the accomplishments of our charitable acts and growth of his Order in Kansas. However, we must not slow down now because if we quit recruiting now and allow suspensions to grow, a historic year could quickly turn into a year of shortcomings. Now is the time to roll up our sleeves and cap this year off with teamwork by every member across our state!
We still have several programs to focus on - Our Pro-Life efforts must continue as never before as we have lost ground on this front since the elections of November, 2008. The lives of the unborn are depending on all our efforts and donations to help bring these precious lives to fruition instead of to a dismal end. We continue to accept donations for the ultrasound machine which we hope to place in the Wyandotte Pregnancy Clinic in Kansas City, Kansas. This will only be accomplished through a teamwork effort and through this effort the lives of countless babies will be saved. As a reminder to bring this program to your March council meeting, I have placed my February 11th letter as an insert in this issue. Our Pennies From Heaven program also needs your support to rebuild our funds after the tornadoes, floods and storms of the past several years. To make all of our programs flourish and maximize our good works we still need to add members to each and every one of our councils across our state. Has your council done its part to maximize your charitable contributions and to grow our Order so the maximum amount of God’s work can be accomplished? If not, the time to start is now. Your Church and community needs your leadership as never before. We must step up our efforts in this ”Year of the Volunteer” for now is the time to answer the call of Pope Benedict XVI to ”Follow Me, Help Us Build Up The Church”.
Your State Officers recently met with the Bishops of Kansas to report to them the accomplishments of our Order in this fraternal year. They were proud of and thankful for the hard work of our members across Kansas. They were especially proud that our membership continues to grow and of the success of the “Father Wants You To Be A Knight Of Columbus” program. The success of this program shows the cooperation between our priests and our councils and the support and respect that each has for the other. They have given their full support and encouragement to the program during the month of March as well. We all agreed that we are all a team and we must work together for the honor and glory of God. We must continue to be the “Strong Right Arm Of The Catholic Church”.
Membership Madness continues but will wrap up at the end of March. Have you been keeping up with the progress of Kansas by logging onto the Supreme website at http://www.kofc.org and clicking on the “For Officers” tab and then clicking on “Membership Madness Brackets?” The results are updated daily. You can also check out how your district is doing in the state-wide competition by logging onto the state website at http://www.kansas-kofc.org. In January, Kansas defeated the State of Maryland. At the time of this writing we are leading Iowa by a score of 108 - 66. In terms of percentage of Circle of Honor quota we are leading by a score of 7.2% - 5.3%. Hopefully we will be in the championship round during the month of March when you read this. We must all put forth our best team effort to uphold the rich history of membership recruitment in Kansas and to again put Kansas atop the leader board! Happy recruiting - I’ll see you in the winners circle!
Vivat Jesus.
Francis G. Drouhard, State Deputy
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