KNIGHTS ARE EVERYWHERE

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Our Lady of Perpetual Help is blessed with many ministries. One of the largest and most active is Council 4603 of the Knights of Columbus, a group of dedicated Catholic men affiliated with a 140-year-old national fraternal organization.

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As laity leaders at Our Lady, the Knights are everywhere. At Masses, we serve as Eucharistic ministers, ushers and greeters. We coach boys' and girls' sports teams, are sponsors and team leaders at OCIA and partner with other ministries on special projects. And we donate thousands of dollars annually to Our Lady’s school, other OLPH ministries and community and international groups.

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Oh, yeah. We also have lots of fun - playing euchre in the church Life Center, taking our wives and girlfriends out for an annual Christmas dinner, hanging out at our monthly social meetings, attending an annual state bowling tournament and gathering for a family cook-out and hayride every October.

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For Catholic men at Our Lady, Council 4603 has it all – faith, fellowship, charitable endeavors and good times.

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Council 4603’s activities are much appreciated by leaders within our parish.

Fr. Joe Yokum, Our Lady’s pastor, has been a brother Knight for more than 20 years and is an enthusiastic supporter of Council 4603. “I appreciate all the work the Knights do,” he says. “They are pillars not only of our parish but of family life. They’re always ready and willing to step up to the plate and volunteer.”

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Andrea Adler, longtime president of the Parish Women’s Association, agrees, “We are so very proud to partner with the Knights on various projects and activities. They are an inspiration to us all by their outstanding leadership in our parish, our community and beyond.  Their dedication and service to the poor, the homeless, the disabled and underserved is true discipleship.”

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Julie Freeman, principal of Our Lady School, adds, “We’re very thankful for the Knights. Whenever we’ve needed help, they’ve been there for us.” Council 4603 financially assists the annual 8th -grade field trip to Washington, D.C.; helps staff Saints Night Out, the school’s main fundraiser; provides tuition scholarships; donates money to the school’s excellence in science program; organizes annual basketball free-throw contests for students; and sponsors Keep-Christ-in-Christmas poster contests.

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Council 4603 has also been recognized with numerous awards from the Knight’s national and state organizations for our charitable work, membership recruitment and overall performance.

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Our Council’s two biggest annual fundraisers are the Lenten Fish Fry and the Measure Up campaign. During six Fridays preceding Easter, brother Knights – with assistance from our Ladies’ Auxiliary and the Boy and Cub Scouts – fry up the most delicious fish in central Ohio for hundreds of hungry parishioners and other Grove City-area residents. The weekend Measure Up campaign, which assists the developmentally challenged, is held each spring. We solicit donations from motorists at intersections throughout the city. All the money collected goes to the Ohio and Grove City Special Olympics and the Heinzerling Developmental Center.

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But the Knights’ fundraisers don’t end there.  We periodically sponsor breakfasts in the Life Center after weekend Masses. During the parish Community Festival in August, we assist with parking and staff a food tent. We also partner with Our Lady School in selling football-themed lottery tickets and sponsor an annual Breakfast With Santa and an Easter egg hunt for OLPH children.

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Almost every ministry at Our Lady has received donations from Council 4603. For instance, each year we are a platinum donor to the Festival.  Among the many organizations and individuals receiving regular financial assistance are seminarians, Boy Scouts, OCIA, pro-life groups and a Christian orphanage in Cambodia. We honor our priests, deacon, veterans and first responders with dinners. We head up Our Lady’s White Christmas program that provides food for the needy and the Giving Tree that provides Christmas gifts to low-income families. And the Knights don’t forget the women of our parish, either. On Mothers’ Day, we give mothers pins honoring their dedication to their families. Council 4603 also provides Bibles to OLPH teens upon graduation from high school.

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Our Council is almost as old as Our Lady parish itself.  A handful of leading men from Our Lady gathered on Jan. 16, 1958 – four years after the parish was established - for the first of eight organizational meetings. Frank Forest was chosen temporary chairman, and Robert Zwick was named temporary financial secretary. On April 29, 1958, twenty-three new members were inducted into the Knights. Council 4603’s first official business meeting was convened the following day. At the time, Our Lady celebrated Masses in what is now the Little Theater on Broadway in the heart of Town Center. The church moved to its current location at 3730 Broadway, four blocks north of the theater, in December 1959.

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On Sept. 2, 1969, the Knights bought a one-story building on an acre of land at the corner of Stringtown and McDowell Roads to be used as Council 4603’s headquarters. The property (now the site of a CVS Pharmacy) was sold, and $250,000 of the proceeds were used in 1999 to build the basement of the current church. In exchange for the donation, Msg. Romano Ciotola, Our Lady’s pastor at the time, and the Catholic Diocese of Columbus, agreed to reserve space in the basement for a meeting room and offices for the Knights. Council 4603 still conducts its business meetings in this area on the second Wednesday of each month at 7 p.m.

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All brother Knights and their families are eligible for reasonably priced life insurance policies. This highly rated insurance program is operated through the national Knights organization, headquartered in Hartford, Conn. The program also offers annuities, long-term care insurance and financial advisors