My Brothers,
I am honored to represent the state of Pennsylvania. I will work hard for Pennsylvania and hopefully earn the trust that you have placed in me. When I was installed as the State Deputy in St. Mary’s Church in New Haven, I had the opportunity to visit the basement of the church where our Order was founded. It was an awesome experience to stand there and think about the long and distinguished history of our Order. From that handful of men, we have grown into the into the largest fraternal Catholic organization in the world. And as I sat in the pew with Pennsylvania State Council on the plaque, it humbled me to think of all the State Deputies that have sat there before me. But it also brought feelings of pride to know that we will be celebrating 125 years of service to our Church, our communities, and the Order. We have done great things in Pennsylvania, and I believe we will do even greater things in the future.
Our Supreme Knight Patrick Kelly introduce two new programs that I believe the Knights in Pennsylvania will embrace and make a part of every council. The first is Aid and Support After Pregnancy (ASAP). This program is designed to offer support for pregnancy centers in a way that will help them to continue their mission of helping women in difficult situations. Similar to the RSVP program, when a council donates $500 to an approved center the Supreme Council will send $100 to the center as well. We Knights have been supporting these centers for many years through our Ultrasound Initiative and with monetary donations. Now we can increase our support with ASAP. I encourage all the councils in Pennsylvania to participate in this important program.
The second program that the Supreme Knight introduce is the Eucharistic Revival, which the USCCB has asked the Knights to aid and support at our local parishes. We can help with Eucharistic processions, adoration, and Holy Hours. These are things which many councils have done in the past or are doing now. We need to be ready to assist our Pastor in these endeavors.
Our program team, led by Mike DeLucia, has set an ambitious goal for this year. We have been very successful in bringing ultrasound machines to the centers that need them This year’s goal is 12 new machines. We have 6 in the pipeline with more on the way. I am sure that we will meet this goal. We will be conducting a jug drive for Special Olympics with the goal of raising $100,000. The Coats for Kids program has a goal of 10,000 coats this year and with your help we will succeed.
The membership team is led by Jim Maochi. The membership team needs everyone working together to achieve their goal. The State will not be successful without the councils being membership active. We need every council recruiting. It is the only way it will work. When we run a program we have to think about how we can recruit at the same time. Every program is a membership opportunity.