Supreme Knight's Report

Fraternal Survey

Each year, our Fraternal Survey allows us to measure our many works of charity in a quantifiable way. While numbers don’t tell the whole story, for the Knights of Columbus they tell a very impressive story.

As you know, our 2005 donations of time and money to charity set new records, partly as a result of our extraordinary efforts to help the victims of hurricanes Katrina and Rita. And so it’s all the more remarkable that in 2006 we exceeded even those achievements by a substantial margin. Last year, our donations to charity totaled well over $143 million, an increase of more than $4 million. The majority of those donations, nearly $109 million, came from state and local councils, assemblies and circles. That’s 75 percent of the total. The remaining $35 million, or 25 percent of the total, came from the Supreme Council.

Among state jurisdictions, Canadian Knights continued to lead the way, as they have for many years. This year, our brother Knights in Québec regained the top spot, by raising and donating more than $7.8 million to charity. The other top jurisdictions were: Ontario, Texas, Illinois, Michigan, Florida, California, Virginia, Pennsylvania and New York.

And while there are fewer than 10,000 Knights in British Columbia, they outdistanced every other jurisdiction by making charitable donations of $328 per member. Among the other jurisdictions donating at least $100 per member were: Ontario, Florida, Virginia, Alberta, New Brunswick, Washington, North Carolina, Saskatchewan, Colorado, Kentucky, Alabama, New Hampshire, Manitoba, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia and Alaska.

Equally impressive was the major increase this year in the amount of time that Knights devoted to charity, which climbed to an alltime record of more than 68 million volunteer hours.

In this as in so many ways, the Knights of Columbus sets the standard for what it means to be a fraternal benefit society. We are just one of 76 fraternal associations that are members of the National Fraternal Congress of America, but we account for more than two-thirds of the volunteer hours reported for all 76.

The monetary value of these volunteer hours is equally impressive. Independent Sector, a foundation that encourages charitable giving, estimates that the dollar value of a volunteer hour in 2006 was $18.77. That would make the dollar value of our volunteer efforts last year worth nearly $1.3 billion. And the value over the past ten years? Nearly $10 billion.

But as I said earlier, numbers don’t tell the whole story.

After all, how do you tell the story of the people who survived surgery and are living healthy lives again because Knights of Columbus-organized blood drives last year that drew 393,000 blood donors?

Who can describe the comfort and encouragement provided to the sick and bereaved because brother Knights made more than 6 million visits to those who were ill or suffering? In his first encyclical, Deus Caritas Est, Pope Benedict reminded us that “Love of neighbor, grounded in the love of God, is first and foremost a responsibility for each individual member of the faithful” (20). He also wrote, that “Christian charitable activity…is a way of making present here and now the love which man always needs” (31).

Every day throughout our Order, ordinary Knights are living lives of extraordinary love. The first story to relate is the distribution of hundreds of wheelchairs to people who need them but can not afford them. Among those gathered at México City’s Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe to receive wheelchairs from the Knights were the young and the old: a six-yearold girl with muscular dystrophy and a 74-yearold woman who had been confined to bed for a year after breaking her hip.

Now, young Ana no longer has to rely on her mother to carry her to school, and Estella can get around and even help in the garden, without having to rely on her daughters and grandchildren.

There is also the story of a 13-year-old girl named Funy, a good student who had to be carried to school until she received her shiny wheelchair, which she calls her “new red Ferrari.” Born with numerous physical disabilities, Funy has never walked but maintains a wonderful outlook on life. The new hope and mobility that has been brought into this girl’s life is an example of how, with a little effort, Knights change lives for the better day to day. It also tells us that we must continue to do more because more needs to be done.

California Knights have taken the lead in obtaining and distributing wheelchairs in México and Latin America, while Knights of Columbus from British Columbia are planning to send hundreds of wheelchairs to Afghanistan. Working with the Wheelchair Foundation we have provided more than 10,000 wheelchairs to people in need since 2003.

Although hurricanes Katrina and Rita devastated the Gulf Coast nearly two years ago, a tremendous amount of work remains to be done. Brian Hughes, grand knight of Council 891 in Port Perry, Ont., heard firsthand about the problems in New Orleans from a brother Knight in Louisiana. Hughes is also the football coach at a local Catholic high school, and he organized a spring break trip of nearly 50 students and Knights to New Orleans. Working with Catholic Charities, they cleaned out 11 homes, donated nearly $20,000 to two hard-hit parishes and helped rebuild Archbishop Hannan High School. One of the students said afterward: “It was a life-changing experience.”

Many councils, brother Knights and families are still hurting, and they continue to need our help. And so we are asking councils in other parts of North America to adopt a Gulf Coast council that needs help.

Stories like these are repeated every day in thousands of councils around the world: Texas Knights involved in prison ministry; Alberta Knights traveling to Jamaica to build homes for impoverished people there; New York Knights raising $24,000 for a visiting priest from Ghana so that he could buy an SUV to serve his rural diocese.

It is no wonder that when so many hear “K of C,” they think “Knights of Charity.”

None of our programs have been more successful than our efforts to help people with intellectual and physical disabilities. Knights of Columbus were among the volunteers at the first Special Olympics games in Chicago in 1968. Since that time, we have been at the forefront in assisting brother Knight Sargent Shriver and Eunice Kennedy Shriver build Special Olympics into a great worldwide initiative. Since 1980, we have provided more than $48 million to Special Olympics. During the same period, the Knights of Columbus at all levels has provided more than $375 million to help those with physical and mental disabilities.