Ran across this interesting article, about a 1920 fundraising effort of two groups, who paid for construction of two downtown Green Bay buildings — the Downtown YMCA and the Columbus Community Club, now housing the WBAY, Channel 2, studios on South Jefferson Street. According to the article the two groups raised over $800,000 the construction of these two buildings.
One point I got from the article was that the Columbus Community Club was sponsored by local Knight of Columbus, apparently in an effort to compete with our Protestant neighbors – I don’t know about that, but what I do know is that as a group the Knights should be proud of the fact that we continue to give and provide support to our local community.
You can read the entire aritcal here:
Although an interesting piece, I am not real sure what of the point of the article was – I was amased that two “separate” organizations could raise that much money in 1920’s in an effort to help those in our community. Regardless of the “reason” they both served to help better our community.
I can tell you that Knight fund raising efforts go beyond religious affiliations. As an example, in 2006 the Knights in the state of Wisconsin raised over $650,000 during our annual Tootsie Roll Drive. The distributions of these funds go back into our local communities, to such organizations as ASPRIO, Special Olympics and other organizations.
Recently our State Officers approved the following grants from the State Charity Fund: $2,000 to a 29 year old single mom living in Lola, who formerly had breast cancer and in January, 2008 was diagnosed with kidney cancer. $1,500 to a 50 year old man from Iron River whose house exploded and while protecting his 10 year old son, received extensive burns on his hands. $1,500 to a 70 year old man from Wauzeka who cracked his pelvis when his horse got spooked while practicing for the Villa Louis Carriage Classic. $1,500 to a single mom in her late thirties from Wausau to help pay for funeral expenses for her 3 children ages 9, 8 and 2 lost in a fire when the fire struck the duplex where they were living. $2,500 to a 49 year old man from Peshtigo whose wife died on October 17, 2008 from bone cancer. She previously had breast cancer in 2005 and the cancer recurred in the form of bone cancer. $2,000 to a young single gal in her late twenties from Spooner who has a 7 year old daughter who is autistic. She also has two other children. $2,500 to an 81 year old man from Tigerton to help pay for many blood transfusions as he is fighting prostate cancer and now the cancer has spread to his bones.
These are only some recent examples of the charity efforts by the Knights of Columbus in Wisconsin. Oh, did I mention that the beneficiary of these grants need not be a member of the Knight of Columbus or a Catholic to be considered for a charitable donation from the Wisconsin State Council Charity Fund.