2012 Activities

Christmas Party

At our 10th annual Christmas Party, we had the largest turn out to date.  It was great to see a lot of new faces. Special thanks to: Father Frank, our Worthy Chaplain for his Blessing of our meal; our Council Brother Bob Hays for hosting the party again this year and great entertainment; Brother Vinny Montesano and his staff for the great food and drink; Brother Bill Shields for his home-made brew ( I believe the pale ale was the winner); Brother Bob Rodner and his team of DJ's who provided some great music before and during dinner. Many thanks to all who donated to the raffle and a special thanks to Jim Smith, Doug Cox, Harold Gibson, and Brian Greiner for helping with the raffle!! Click here for pictures!

Family Mass

Nov 3 - The Knights gathered to celebrate Family Mass on Sat, Nov 3 at the 5:30 Mass. Monsignor Mullin recognized the Knights at Mass, and light refreshments were served after Mass. Thanks to Family Director SK Ron Zanoni for planning. 

Christmas Card Sale

Nov 3 - 10  The Knights once again conducted a Chirstmas Card Sales campaign after Masses Sat/Sun, Nov 2,3,9,10. Along with card orders, the Knights were selling "Keep Christ in Christmas" car magnets and signs. Thanks to all the St. Elizabeth parishioners for your support! SK John Batt coordinated the sales effort.

Membership Drive and Open House

On Sunday Nov 18th, the Knights hosted an Open House for St. Elizabeth parishioners to learn more about the Knights of Columbus.

Lord’s Pantry Christmas

Dec 7 - The annual Lord's Pantry Christmas Toys and Food Distribution occurred on at the Downingtown West High School cafeteria in Downingtown PA.

The Lord's Pantry is charitable organization that provides foods and other household items to those people who are in need. They have over 250 clients who they serve throughout the year.  They rely on volunteers to collect and sort the toys and food that various individuals, organizations and companies contribute. Volunteers than assemble the Christmas toys and food "baskets" for each client and then carries them out to the clients car.

This year over 18 Knights from St. Elizabeth Knights of Columbus Council # 13141, volunteered for the Lord's Pantry Christmas Toy and Food Distribution.  This was a two day event. Friday, December 7, 2012 from 2:00PM to 8:00PM was the setting up of the cafeteria at Downingtown West High School.  5 Knights volunteered for the setup and carry toys that individuals and such organizations as the Girl Scouts, contributed to the event. Saturday, December 8, 2012 8:00AM to 5:00PM, was the actual distribution of the toys and dinners. Over 13 Knights volunteered for the distribution and the cleanup afterwards

BVM Thanksgiving Dinner Drive

2012 BVM ThanksgivingMany thanks to all those who participated in the Turkey Thanksgiving Dinner drive for our Sister Parish, Visitation BVM.  A very Special Thanks to Brothers John Fiore, Jim Smith and Mike Kasper for making the delivery of 36 dinners to BVM on Sunday. Also, again this year, a big thanks goes to Mary Damian for her usual help and kindness.  Click here for pictures!

Stewardship Fair Assistance

Nov 10-11 in the St. Elizabeth Social Hall, the Knights helped with set up and take down of the Parish Stewardship Council's Stewardship Fair.

First Degree Meeting

St. Elizabeth Council hosted a First Degree ceremony on Sun, Oct 21.  Our Council welcomes three new members: Terry DiCesare, John Laager, and Dan Mahoney.

Springton Potato Harvest

2012 Springton ManorAug 4 - The Springton Potatoes were harvested Saturday August 4, 2012. In spite of the hot weather and a few bee stings, we harvested 3200 lbs of good size potatoes  (last year the harvest was 3100 lbs).  This year is now our second largest harvest. As usual, they were immediately delivered to the Chester County Food Bank. The potatoes will then be delivered to the various Chester County Food Cupboards on Monday.    The Council's Springton Manor Potato Project was highlighted in the State Council's Keystone Knight. A BIG THANK YOU TO ALL THOSE WHO PARTICIPATED IN THIS PROJECT THROUGHOUT THE YEAR. For the harvest on Saturday, we had 13 Knights, 2 KofC wives, 4 adults and about 15 children, all from St Elizabeth. Again this year, A BIG THANK YOU to Pat Kasper for organizing the St. Elizabeth Parish Youth and their families. Also to Mary Damian for her help and picture taking skills. Another BIG THANKS to the following Brother Knights and their families for their support during the harvest: Jim Smith, Curt Zingaro, John Rogge, Ralph Hannum, Mike Kasper, Leam Dempsey, John Layden, Steve George, Phil Bauer, Robert Zawadzkas, Ray Boncek, Doug Cox, Jack Samson. See more pictures here!

Golf Outing

This was our 10th annual Knights of Columbus Golf Tournament, held at the Kimberton Golf Club Fri Jul 13th Check out the pictures by clicking here!

Adopt A Trail

Oct 6 - There was another successful Adopt-a-Trail clean-up on Sat, Oct 6th; the church grounds and the trail stretching from the corner of Graphite Mine Road/Station Blvd. to Fellowship Road/Eagle Farms Road. The weather couldn't have been better for the 12 brothers listed below and Bill Burke's wife Trisha and daughter Natalie that also pitched in. In total, the group picked up about 4 full bags of trash and spruced up the church grounds in one hour in preparation for next weekend's visit by the Archbishop. Thanks again to everyone for their support:  Bill Burke, wife Trisha, daughter Natalie; Jeff Ciardi; Dan Condron; Hoot Gibson; Mike Kasper; Joe LaGrossa; Lou Lefebvre; Jim McNally; Jack Samson; Mark Sciabacucchi (organizer); Bill Shields; Ron Van Alstyne.

10th Anniversary Gala

May 5 - The Knights of Columbus, Council No. 13141 celebrated 10 years of service to the church and the community at the Wyndham Garden Hotel in Exton, PA.  The evening included cocktails, dinner and dancing (live DJ). Open to all council members, over 50 members attended. Also in attendance, Monsignor Mullen, Our Chaplain Father Chambers, and Deacon Tom Higman. At the celebration the Council gave out awards for Family of the Year (John and Debra Rogge) and Knight of the Year (Jim Bacho) and awarded a special plaque to Ray Williams in recognition of his service to our Council. The history of our Council was showcased by displaying our recently framed Charter, past Council Awards, activity photos, past newsletters and publications.  Click here to see all the pictures!

Burkina Fasio Hunger Project

June 6 - Under the direction of Catholic Relief Services, twelve members of the St Elizabeth Council of the Knights of Columbus aided 100 fellow parishioners in preparing approximately 14,000 packets of food to be shipped to the people of Burkina Fasio. Burkina Fasio is a Sahelian country located in Africa where close to 90 percent of Burkina Faso's 16 million inhabitants are engaged in subsistence.

The day begins with Catholic Relief Services delivering bulk packages of dry food goods and with the supervision of CRS the 12 members of the knights in attendance helped to unload and set up the sorting and packaging assembly process. The Knights then participated in the set up, sorting, packaging, vacuum sealing, boxing and reloading of the food packets and the entire process took approximately three hours. The result was the creation of 14,000 packets of dried food vacuum sealed and boxed for shipping to Africa.
The members in attendance where James McNally, James MvAvoy, James Bacho, Bill Shields, Ron Van Alstyne, Liam Dempsey, Ralph Hannum, Curt Zingaro, Doug Cox, R J Dawson, Phil Forlano, Charles Reimer.

Annual Clothing Drive

June 10 - Click here to see pictures from the event!

Father Tom Higman’s First Mass at St. Elizabeth

June 3 - After serving as a Deacon in our Parish for six months, and following his Ordination to Priesthood, Father Tom Higman returned to St. Elizabeth for his first Mass as a Priest on June 3rd. As our Brother Knight of Columbus, Fourth Degree members of the Council were proud escort Father Tom as Honor Guard for this Mass.  Sir Knight Bill Schell, Chester County Assembly Color Corps Commander led the Honor Guard, in the procession, and provided escort to the social hall for a receiving line after Mass.  Thanks again to all Brothers of our Council who participated in, and attended Mass today in support of Father Tom Higman.  Click here for pictures!

Excellence in Religion Award

Our council sponsored the annual "Excellence in Religion" award for an 8th grade St Elizabeth student that shows outstanding academic achievement in religion. This year's recipient was Katherine Sweeney.

Lord’s Pantry – Postal Workers Food Collection

May 12 -  The Lord's Pantry is charitable organization that provides foods and other household ideas to those people who are in need. They have over 250 clients who they serve throughout the year.
The Lord's Panty's Postal Workers' Food Collection drive is an annual event through the efforts of the Downingtown and Exton Postal Workers. The Postal Workers collect canned and dried foods from the people on their delivery route.  The Lord's Pantry relies on volunteers to collect and sort the food that the Poster's Workers drop off.  This year 7 members of the St. Elizabeth Knights of Columbus. Each provided as much as 5 hours of service sort and weighting over 11,700 lbs. of food donation.

Passing of Sir Knight (Pasquale) Pat Colletti

Colletti_PatThe St. Elizabeth Council mourns the loss of Brother Pat Colleti who passed away on Sept 26. Pat was an active Knight, having held several offices: Past Grand Knight, Past Faithful Navigator of Chester County Assembly, Former District Deputy (when St. Elizabeth Council was founded), and Past President of the Trinity Chapter.  His Funeral Mass was held Oct 2nd, and was well attended by his brother Knights (over 24 Knights), who served as Honor Guard, and Altar servers.

Bartending for “Tour of Italy”

The Knights served as bartenders and servers at the Social Fellowship committee's Tour of Italy Saturday evening, Sep 15th in the St. Elizabeth Social Hall. SK Harold Gibson organized our group.

Blood Drive

Setpember 15 - Saturday morning, in the St. Elizabeth Social Hall, The Knights again hosted the parish blood drive. Brother Dan Keating organized the event.

St. Elizabeth Youth Fair

September 9 - the Knights cooked close to 200 hot dogs Sunday in support of St. Elizabeth's first Youth Fair.  Close to 300 people attended the Mass and fair to celebrate youth programs in the Parish on what turned out to be a beautiful afternoon. Amy Deedy thanked the Knights on behalf of the Parish. Many thanks to Bill Shell and Jim Smith for the use of their grills and to Patty Smith for keeping us organized.  Participating Knights: Jim Bacho, Mike Kasper, Bill Shell, Jim Smith, Matt Jiannino, Worthy District Deputy John Rogge. Click here for pictures!

May Procession

May 10, the Knights participated in the Parish May Procession.  Click here for pictures!

Lenten Fish Dinner

The annual dinner was held Fri, Mar 30 in the St. Elizabeth Social Hall. Organized this year by SK Joe Arena. Click here for pictures!

St Elizabeth School Science Fair

January 29 - St. Elizabeth School Science Teacher, Jennifer Nangle, daughter of Brother Christopher Nangle, requested volunteers from the Council to judge the school science fair. Thirteen brothers with science backgrounds assembled on January 29 at 10:30 to receive instructions and criteria for judging. The brothers were divided into two groups and proceeded to either a 6th or 7th grade exhibition area. There were a total of 52 projects that needed to be judged. Our members diligently read the data, gave constructive criticism and graded each project. The entire procedure took over two and a half hours. The score sheets will be tabulated by Ms. Nangle who will then send the winners to a Chester County competition.   Click here for pictures! 

Chester County Assembly Names SK Jim Smith Sir Knight of the Year

2012SKofTheYearAt Chester County Assembly's annual Testimonial Dinner, Sir Knight Jim Smith, PFN, PGK was named Sir Knight of the Year. Jim (one of our Council's prominent members) was recognized primarily for his drive and support of the VA Center in Coatesville. Jim's dedication and service to others and the Order are noteworthy: in addition to numerous service hours, Jim has held various offices in both the St. Elizabeth Council (through Grand Knight) and Chester County Assembly (through Faithful Navigator). Jim has also been recognized by the Council as Knight of the Year. In the photo Sir Knight of the year, PFN Jim Smith shows his plaque, while FN Bill Shields helps keep his bowtie straight.

Free Throw Contest

January 22 - The annual KofC Free throw contest was held at St. Elizabeth on Jan 22nd in the school's new gym. Participating children compete against each other within their Council (often Parish) affiliation. A few participants from St. Thomas Moore Council also joined us. The local competition of the St. Elizabeth Council # 13141 Free Throw Championship was held on January 22, 2012. Eighteen boys and girls, ages 10 to 14 participated. Eight Council Champions were named. Each received a Champion's plaque and was eligible to participate in the District 20 competition. All participants were recognized with a Participation Certificate. Knights of Columbus Council #13141 is proud to recognize the winners of the Council Free Throw Championship:  Grace O'Connell, Addie Cambria, Halle Kopecki, Dylan Jorgensen, Nathan Robertson, David Jorgensen, Jack, O'Connell, Nick Cambria. A big thanks to brother Ed Smith for organizing again this year.  Click here to see the pictures!