April 2021 Bulletin: Christ Is Risen!

Lead article from the April 2021 bulletin, online now.

Happy Easter!!! The Lord is risen Alleluia! As Lent is over and we celebrate the resurrection of the Lord the Knights in person activity is starting to pick up. As Holy Week is during the first week of the month the council meeting is in person at the St. Albert’s Parish Hall at 7:00 pm on April 8th. As Minnesota is starting to open up following the lock downs, we are hoping to have more in person events soon. As of the writing of this article the status of if Albertville Friendly City is going to happen is unknown. We are waiting to see when the Albertville Friendly City Days will know the status and will plan council activities in relationship to the festival accordingly. As of the writing of this article there was not a decision from the State Council as to if the tootsie roll drive was going to happen. As each day passes without a decision from the State the likelihood of a tootsie roll drive decreases. Scholarship applications were due into gaming by April 1st. If you are reading this article and your high school senior has not submitted their application for a scholarship please make sure that it gets in. Thank you for all you are doing in these strange times. Please continue to pray for one another, our church and country. Remember to keep the faith!!!!

God bless,

Andy Sipple

Grand Knight   

September 2019: A Full Fall on Tap

Lead article from the September 2019 bulletin.

The August Hanover and St. Michael parades were a good experience. Many thanks to Earl Krajsa for another year of letting the Knights use his trailer and for driving the float (Earl’s trailer) in the Albertville, Hanover, and St. Michael parades. Thanks to Brent Traynor for organizing our councils ability to be in the parades. In the Hanover and St. Michael parades around 17 boxes of tootsie rolls were tossed to kids and adults. It seemed the adults enjoyed getting the monster Knights of Columbus tootsie rolls as much or more than the kids. The kids had a great time tossing out the tootsie rolls.

The September calendar is pretty full of events. In addition to St. Michael and St. Albert’s fall festivals on consecutive weekends there is major degree Saturday September 21 at St. Joseph’s in Delano. The 1st degree starts at 9 am, followed by the second degree at 10 am and the third degree at 11 am with lunch to follow. Please consider attending if you are looking to get additional degrees and/or support new Knights in our area.

Our council is co-sponsoring with the Catholic Watchmen a talk by Matt Birk on the evening on September 21 at St. Michael’s church. Mr. Birk will speak from 7:00 – 8:00 pm and be available in a reception after he finishes his talk. This is a father-son event and tickets are only $5.00 a head. Following the Matt Birk talk, a first degree is hoping to be held in October with recruits from the talk.

As summer comes to an end and as school supplies in preparation for the next school year start showing up around the house, I am reminded that the Christmas tree lot is not too far off. I believe that set up for the tree lot will start around mid-November and shifts to work the lot will be available shortly thereafter. Please keep some time available to help out at the tree lot. More information to come later. Many hands make light work at the Christmas tree lot. 

God bless,

Andy Sipple

Grand Knight

June 2019 Bulletin: A Higher Education

Lead article from the June 2019 bulletin, online now.

Andy Sipple and I just returned home from a ceremony at the STMA high school having awarded $750 scholarships to over thirty senior students. If we do nothing else as a council, this event alone is worth the current year's work. It is the single most satisfying thing that we do. Our youth are in need of all the help they can get. 

Kids today start worrying about SAT tests as early as the 9th-grade in this hyper-credentialed culture they are forced to contend with. It was not that big of a deal as recently as 1979-1981 when I attended the U of M. We surely did not spend one whole school day on one test (ridiculous nonsense). 

This was all in hopes of becoming "successful" as a student in hot pursuit of a top-rate (if not liberal progressive) education. This, of course, would lead to the landing of a great, high-paying position and rewarding career. The debt most of them will incur is a faint whisper in the far back corner of their young conscience. The debt Godzilla will surely rear its burdensome head shortly after they toss the tasseled hat in the air at the graduation ceremony. 

We need to focus our attention much more on targeted education in the form of community college, trade school, on-the-job training and such. Major public sector universities and state colleges continue to raise tuition while at the same time bellying up to the public hog-trough to feast on tax-payer cash. Some enterprising publication needs to dispatch a team of energetic young reporters to investigate all of these colleges' and universities' spending habits. I suspect some extensive waste ("just saying"). They are all in secret possession of bloated endowment funds. Most if not all of them could offer free tuition for all students for decades to come with this ever growing stash. What on earth are they planning for all of this money? Here is some information on university endowment funds for parents who struggle to find funds to help their kids: Yale-$27 billion, Texas University system-$26.5 billion, Stanford-$24.7 billion, Princeton-$23.8 billion, MIT-$14.9 billion, etc. 

Our own University of Minnesota is #24 on the list and has $4 billion in a large maroon and gold piggy bank with a gopher on it. This has never delayed their annual trip to the capitol to sing for more cold tax-payer cash from our complicit legislators. Having stated all of this, it is a wonderful thing we do as a council to help these kids in a small way to lessen the financial strain. 

It has been great serving Council 4174 KCs for the past two years as Grand Knight and the past seven years as an officer. I look forward to helping out Andy as best I can and wish him and all officers Godspeed as they take over. I know we will be in good hands.

God bless,

Gary Frandsen

Grand Knight