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March 15, 2026, 12:23 am |
13904 |
Community |
Back-to-School Backpack Drive |
158 |
07/30/2025 |
21 |
3 |
24 |
3 |
72.00 |
0 |
16 |
2 |
2500 |
<p>The Back-to-School Backpack Drive in an annual Council 13904 Community / Family activity that collects backpacks, school supplies, and monetary donations for distribution to disadvantaged kids in the Nashua NH area. The drive is held in mid-July and the school supplies are distributed in early August through the Nashua Soup Kitchen and Shelter (NSKS).</p>
<p>Planning for the drive starts in early June, during which time we coordinate with NSKS for current K - 12 school supply needs, coordinate with Immaculate Conception Church for print, e-mail and web advertising, and set up a website for online donations. We collected backpacks and school supplies from 7/18 - 8/3 this year, together with monetary donations and gift cards. The 2025 Drive collected 110 backpacks, loads of school supplies for all grades, and over $2,500 in monetary donations, which we then delivered to NSKS for sorting, purchase of additional school supplies, and distribution, Several Knights also volunteered for sorting and distribution on donated supplies and backpacks at NSKS (attached photo). </p>
<p>This annual Drive is very important to our council because it it a way to help the underprivileged youth in our community and help families support the education of their kids. We have a lot of fathers and grandfathers who care deeply about kids, and in executing this drive we strengthen our fraternal bonds while doing the Lord's work. Several of us miss the old "Youth" program focus, and this activity helps us maintain it. It also is appreciated by the ICC parish community, as demonstrated by their generous donations this year and prior years. </p> |
69b63450e666f-Backpack 2025.jpeg |
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March 14, 2026, 2:06 pm |
6617 |
Family |
Christmas Food Baskets |
110 |
12/19/2025 |
6 |
2 |
8 |
4 |
32.00 |
0 |
4 |
0 |
655 |
<p>On the Friday before Christmas, several Brother Knights, along with a couple of additional members of St. Luke the Evangelist Parish, gathered at the local Market Basket to assemble 20 Christmas dinners for the St. Luke the Evangelist Food Pantry. Each volunteer was given one item from the shopping list and sent out into the store to grab 20 of that item from the shelves. Arrangements were made with the store in advance to have turkeys, hams, and pies set aside to ensure that there would be enough of each of these items. Once everyone reconvened at the front of the store we paid for the items and split them across 20 boxes to make the individual dinners. When this was done, those volunteers who had enough room in their vehicle drove the boxes to the food pantry, where they were dropped off to be distributed by the volunteers there over the following weekend. Along with the food items, arrangements were also made with the store to have boxes set aside for us to use that morning, and they opened a separate register to handle our order to minimize the impact on the other customers.</p>
<p>This program aims to provide the food pantry with a much needed boost in supplies at a time of year when there is especially high demand for their services, and to help them provide a Christmas dinner to more families in need in the area. The council also completes these shopping trips before Easter and Thanksgiving for the same reason, and purchases either complete dinners or a larger quantity of a smaller number of items, depending on the needs of the pantry at that time. The council typically funds this program through other charitable activities during the year, usually by running a dinner at the Parish Center. </p> |
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March 13, 2026, 8:30 am |
807 |
Community |
Lenten Meals |
14 |
02/20/2026 |
14 |
40 |
54 |
12 |
648.00 |
800 |
10 |
0 |
1600 |
<p>Beginning on 2/20/26 and running for 6 consecutive Fridays during Lent through 3/27/26, Council 807 has hosted a Simple Lenten Meal at St Mary's Parish Hall in Dover from 4:30pm to 6:30pm for many years now. Members prepare and serve a meal of Clam Chowder or Tomato Soup, a grilled cheese sandwich, a garden salad and drink for $5.00 per person. This meal is followed by Mass and Stations of the Cross at St Mary Church in Dover. </p>
<p>This simple meal allows for faith, fellowship, and community for Parishioners during the Lenten season, and is an important catalyst in encouraging all to attend Mass and Stations during this blessed season. Although we view it as a mission rather than a fundraiser, with donations we are able to turn a profit with this mission, which can then be used to further the good works of the Council. 8 to 10 Knights are involved each week of the 6 week program, which also promotes Council camaraderie and spirit among us, and is a visible statement to the Dover Parish community of the Knights practicing their faith and serving others.</p>
<p>Thank you,</p>
<p>Mark Speidel, Chair</p> |
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March 12, 2026, 8:05 pm |
2078 |
Community |
Spring Basket Raffle |
80 |
04/16/2026 |
6 |
0 |
6 |
30 |
180.00 |
200 |
12 |
0 |
2500 |
<p>This late winter we started reaching out to local establishments, restaurants, stores, golf courses and others to see if they would help our raffle by donating items to be included in the basket we would be raffling off. We collected just over $4,000 of donated items and have split them into 4 baskets each worth over $1,000. We have started selling raffle tickets at $10 a ticket or 3 for $25, we will be selling them up until our April meeting, where we will draw the four winners. All money raised from the tickets sales will be donated to Special Olympics of NH, our hope is to raise $2,500.</p> |
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March 12, 2026, 7:56 pm |
2078 |
Community |
Lenten Soups |
80 |
03/27/2026 |
10 |
3 |
13 |
12 |
156.00 |
400 |
30 |
1 |
2500 |
<p>During the season of Lent we provide soups for purchase for Friday's. We solicit orders leading up to Ash Wednesday, for this year we took orders for 400 quarts of soup. We spend time on Thursday's filling all the quart and pint containers that are going to picked up on Fridays. We offer two choices for each week during Lent, a Seafood Option and a non-Seafood Option, some examples from this included, Clam Chowder, Haddock Chowder, Seafood Chowder, Apple and Butternut Squash, Carrot Ginger and many more. This year we have decided that all proceeds from the sales of the soups will be donated to our local Food Pantry, we are expecting to donate $2,500 to them.</p> |
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March 12, 2026, 7:45 pm |
2078 |
Community |
Easter Egg Hunt |
80 |
04/05/2026 |
10 |
2 |
12 |
6 |
72.00 |
400 |
4 |
0 |
0 |
<p>On an annual basis our council provides and hides over 4,000 Easter Eggs for the children on our Parish to find. We do this at St. Martin Church and St. Mary Church. All of the eggs are prefilled with candy and there are four eggs filled with a golden ticket. Those that find the golden ticket need to take it to our table that we have set up to receive a 2 plus foot chocolate bunny. We have Knights out helping the children find the eggs and making the sure the different age groups don't cross over to the older or younger areas, as we keep age groups separate and hide the eggs accordingly. We have our table setup during the egg hunt with our council information and Brothers sitting there to engage with the parents of the children and invite them to join us.</p> |
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March 12, 2026, 7:38 pm |
11573 |
Community |
Christmas Giving Tree |
6 |
11/23/2025 |
6 |
5 |
11 |
40 |
440.00 |
10 |
12 |
0 |
250 |
<p>Gathering of Christmas gift donations from the parish for distribution to a handful of local children's and veteran's charities. Refer to attached report for additional detail.</p> |
69b34e87de6d0-Knights of Columbus 2025 Jack Rawlings Giving Tree.docx |
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March 12, 2026, 7:31 pm |
2078 |
Life |
Giving Tree for Seacoast Birthright |
80 |
12/21/2025 |
5 |
3 |
8 |
8 |
64.00 |
0 |
4 |
0 |
2000 |
<p>Our Life Director and Grand Knight coordinated a giving tree at our Parish, this is our fourth year in a row with this project. We start by reaching out to Seacoast Birthright in Dover and ask them for their needs at the current moment. We then produce tags that we place on a tree right around Thanksgiving and we ask for members of our parish and council to take the tags and purchase the items and return them under the tree. We as a council then collect all the items returned over the season of advent, usually filling the tree 2 or 3 times during the season. Once we have collected all the items we then take them and donate them to Seacoast Birthright so they may continue in their effort to support life and project the life of unborn and mother's in need. This past year we donated hundreds of pounds of items including, diapers, baby bottles, children's clothing, formula, toys, books, winter jackets, hats, mittens, boots, grocery and gas cards. </p> |
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March 12, 2026, 5:26 pm |
6617 |
Community |
St Jude Golf Open |
100 |
05/31/2025 |
25 |
10 |
35 |
12 |
420.00 |
500 |
100 |
0 |
32000 |
<p>St Jude Golf Open - This was our 30th annual Open. This year it was benefiting a local family whose 12 year old daughter has been battling cancer for the last 3 years and a senior citizen in our Parish who has also been battling cancer. The Open was sold out by early March with a 144 golfers. We had 60+ sponsors at various levels of support. We also had 20 Knights who provided a sponsorship in memory of a loved one on Hole #8. The Council prepared a steak tip BBQ at the course and it was thoroughly enjoyed by our golfers and volunteers. The 2025 Open was a huge success. </p> |
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March 12, 2026, 2:39 pm |
13904 |
Family |
St. Patrick's Day Dinner and Fundraiser |
159 |
03/08/2026 |
45 |
20 |
65 |
6 |
390.00 |
6000 |
500 |
2 |
11000 |
<p>The St. Patrick's Day Dinner and Fundraiser is an annual Family event conducted by Council 13904 in collaboration with the Immaculate Conception Church community in Nashua. The event itself includes a traditional Irish dinner, prize raffles, live music, step dancers, and a lot of happy attendees. </p>
<p>The 2026 Dinner hosted 250 attendees in the Bishop Guertin gymnasium and took four months of planning to pull together. The months proceeding the event are spent organizing, getting sponsors, soliciting donations for the prize raffle, advertising, getting supplies, deciding on children's activities, selling tickets, and recruiting volunteers (including potential new Knights). Our Kitchen Crew prepares the food on the days prior to the event. The event itself was staffed by Knights, our spouses and children, plus parishioners who wanted to contribute. Clergy and members of religious orders are invited to attend at no cost, as are Knights that are mentally or financially challenged. </p>
<p>We consider the Patrick's Day Dinner and Fundraiser a Family event because it draws our families together to execute and attend the event, draws our parish family closer together through social interaction, and it raised the $2,250 of scholarship aid we donated this year to four parochial schools in southern New Hampshire. Our weekly planning meetings during the months prior to the event also start and end with prayer, so we always remember we are doing this work in His name. </p> |
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