State Life Director
September 2024
Faith in Action Life - Programs HERE - Resources HERE
Greetings Brother Knights!
We have many Life activities available to your council that can make a difference in protecting and defending God’s greatest gift-Life!
Also, two of our largest events have been or will soon be held:
*Friday, September 6 to Sunday, September 8, Biking for Babies (Ultrasounds). More info below.
Life is one of four categories in the Faith in Action Program. The other three are Family, Faith and Community. Supreme has provided several recommended programs in each of the four categories. The Life recommended programs are:
March for Life
Special Olympics
Ultrasound Program
Pregnancy Center Support-ASAP
Christian Refugee Relief
Silver Rose
Mass for People with Special Needs
Novena for Life
March for Life, Ultrasound Program, Pregnancy Center Support (ASAP) and Special Olympics are featured programs and count as two activities.
Some upcoming life events:
Biking for Babies September 6-8. Thanks to many of you and your councils, we raised over $60,000 in the last two years, enough to pay for three and a half ultrasound machines (each machine is $35,000 but with a match, $17,500 provided per machine). Our 2024 goal is $35,000. A Biking for Babies callout and rally is scheduled for Thursday, April 25th at 7:00pm, at St Louis de Montfort, Fishers. Come hear from a Mom who had an ultrasound and said yes to keeping her baby, hear from pro-lifers leaders, from bikers and why we do Biking for Babies. SAVE THE DATE for the 11th annual event-Sept 6-8. Registration and donations link are below.
Registration Donation
Project Outdoor Nativity Set (PONS)…celebrate the birth Jesus by Nativity Sets to your council, your parish. Here is a message from one of the nine councils who are PONS…. Council #11044 Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, Carmel, IN
Our Council (11044) thought that our participation and support of the PONS
program would be a great way to evangelize about the true meaning of
Christmas in our community. We sold (66) PONS kits in the first year of this
program and everyone was very pleased. We raised about $2,000 for
council charitable needs with very little time and effort for our council
members. The administration of the PONS program was great and makes
this project very easy to run. I hope we can participate in PONS again this
year to support the true meaning of Christmas and that other councils in
our state do the same so as brother knights we can make a positive impact
in our communities, cities, counties, and state! Chris Wrobel, Council #11044
Here is link to video from Father Sean Danda, St Malachy, Brownsburg, which you can share with your Chaplain.
https://vimeo.com/844368584/68e393cf2c?share=copy
Also, the following are some Life programs that many Indiana councils are currently doing or have done:
A Life goal for the fraternal year is for each council to support a Pregnancy Resource Center. The Women who are facing crisis pregnancies need our help and supporting/being connected to a resource center in your area would be a difference maker. The new Supreme’s Aid and Support After Pregnancy (ASAP) program provides an opportunity to support and then receives $100 for each $500 contributes. See kofc.org/life for detailed info. Please make your donation using the online form to ensure the additional $100 support is given to the resource center.
Women’s Care Center Endowment – we plan to assist the Indiana Women’s Care Centers (WCC). We plan to raise $10 million over 10 years.
Silver Rose Program… Indiana will hosted the Silver Rose from April 28th to May 25th. We had 19 councils whoa Silver Rose prayer service. See kofc.org/silverrose. If you’d like to host a service next year, please contact me.
Ultrasound initiative – in the last few months we have awarded or paid for eight units, and now we have requests from several pregnancy resource centers in need of an ultrasound machine. If each council member could contribute $5, we could raise the monies to meet the demands for the next year… or if each council raises $500 from its members, we could meet those requests. Please remember that statistics show that 90% of women in a crisis pregnancy, who see their ultrasound, will keep their baby.
Offer up your council Rosary monthly or quarterly for Life. And consider a Novena for Life in your council, your parish in January. Offer up your council Rosary monthly or quarterly for Life. And consider a Novena for Life in your council, your parish in January during the anniversary of Roe v Wade, and the March for Life.
Invite the local Special Olympics representative to speak at a social night.
As a council, attend right to life events/dinners a supporting the organizations who are the front line and lobbying legislators for Life.
Host a movie night for the council/parish with movies such as Unplanned, Bella, Roe v. Wade, The Matter of Life, Lifemark or October Baby. Have pizza, popcorn, cookies and lemonade with a free will offering, with proceeds to Life organizations.
Special Olympics…one of our featured programs and our goal is for each council to have an Ambassador (include on form IN-FORM1) and raise at least $2,000 and provide 200 man hours…the Polar Plunge and Tootsie Rolls are both life initiatives that can help each council meet their goal.
Help the elderly-Little Sisters of the Poor. See above to help on May 1st.
Check for complete details on each Faith in Action program and the Faith in Action initiative at https://kofc.org/uns/en/programs/index.html. Keep in mind these are recommended programs, but other Life based programs such as those listed above (some you have developed in your council) also qualify as part of the required four activities for this category.
Also, please begin sending your activities today online at http://www.indianakofc.org/ and click on Forms.
One final comment/suggestion: PRAY and COMMUNICATE…as a leader, begin everything with prayer and communicate often. We have some wonderful initiatives and want to be sure all brother Knights are aware so they/the council can receive the blessings of these programs.
If you need help or have any questions about the Knights, especially the Knight’s Life initiatives, please contact me at life@indianakofc.org. Also, there are a couple of brother Knights who I work closely with: Culture of Life Chairman Michael Velasco (prolife@indianakofc.org) and Special Olympics Chairman Brett Striegel (soic@indianakofc.org). The three of us are the Indiana Life team.
Our Lady of Guadalupe, patroness of Life and the Knights of Columbus, pray for us!
Vivat Jesus and God bless you!
Larry Kunkel
Indiana State Council - Knights of Columbus
State Life Director
life@indianakofc.org
Vivat Jesus