Knights of Columbus John Clare Council #15485

Attention John/Clare Council members 15485

From Tom Owens dated July 17th in an email sent to Don Mey and forwarded to all John/Clare Council members.

I have had contact, as you requested, with Fr. Jim Galluzzo two weeks ago regarding how our Council might support his various charitable activities with the poor and homeless. Below is a brief summary of our conversation.

Contact with Fr. Jim Galluzzo  

I talked with Fr. Jim this past week regarding support our KC Council may be able to provide to him for the charitable organizations he coordinates—The Urban Spirituality Center (USC) and Diversity as Gift (DAG). USC serves the needy at Street Roots, Rose Haven, Maybelle Center for Community, and the Portland Homeless Family Solutions. The types of items he collects through USC include bottled water, men and women’s underwear, socks, hygiene items, baby diapers and wipes, and children’s underwear, school supplies, juice boxes and dried fruit and nuts. 

The DAS serves the homeless, low-income people and people living with AIDS. Assistance they provide includes hygiene kits, coasts, sweaters, socks, hats, gloves, first aid kits, gift cards, back packs, school supplies, shower supplies etc. in addition to cash to 13 homeless projects and emergency funds for electric bills, food and rent. Agencies he assists include the Maybelle Center for Community, Downtown Chapel, Sisters of the Road, St. Francis Dining Hall, Rose Haven, St Andrews Nativity School, and Street Roots. 

Fr. Jim is currently collecting school supplies for children in August. Perhaps we can recruit some KC volunteers at our next monthly meeting to form a committee to help plan, organize, collect and deliver some of these items to Fr. Jim now and on a quarterly or semi-annual basis. We might also dedicate the proceeds from one or two pancake breakfasts a year for the needs identified above. I would be happy to coordinate with Fr. Jim and a KC chair of these activities. 

I wish to make two motions for the new business section of our Tuesday meeting. One is to have a member discussion and vote on whether we, as a Councl,  agree to support the various ministries of Fr. Jim Galluzzo and recruit a team of KC volunteers and chair to coordinate this work.

Motion 1) Is to support the various ministries of Fr. Jim Galluzzo, with man power as needed, schedule of events and requirements to be posted on Knights Blog Activity Calendar

Motion 2)  John/Clare Council to donate $300 to help support the work of the St. Andrews Nativity School in NE Portland. This school, under the sponsorship of the Jesuits, provides a first-class education, tuition free, for about 45  6 through 8 grade low income, predominately minority boys and girls. The staff also commit to follow up with the students and their families to prepare to get high school scholarships and later scholarships for college and/or work training programs. Michael Chau and I attended a tour of the school and fund-raising lunch there last month and were impressed. Michael, Oanh Nguyen, and I have already committed to making personal monthly donations to this school.

Additional information from Tom Owens dated July 21st;

Rational for Council support for the St. Andrew Nativity School 

Thanks for your comments and questions about why our council should support the St. Andrew Nativity School. I believe our Council should require a rational statement for all future financial donations. Here are some of my thoughts. First our Catholic faith requires us to reach out to those in need, both locally and beyond. There is no doubt that we should help St Clare and St. John Fisher Catholic schools. However, I feel we must also reach out to extremely poor communities beyond our local neighborhood. Here are some specific reasons I can share for why we also should support the St. Andrew Nativity School. 

1. The Nativity School is a newly recognized national model for Jesuits to broaden their focus beyond the "best and brightest" high school and college students to also include poor minority middle school children who might lack the inspiration, motivation, and dreams of becoming successful Catholic leaders. The Nativity School selects poor minority children and some from refugee families who would otherwise not have the resources to attend a Catholic middle school that can help form them in their faith and give the necessary educational background to gain scholarships to Catholic high schools and colleges. Having been an inner-city middle school teacher myself, I know the importance and challenges of working with minority students who would otherwise lack the skills of getting into a competitive private high school or college. 
2. Without a school like Nativity, many of these young minority boys and girls would be likely to drop out of high school and some would likely become gang members and end up in prison. 
3. The staff at Nativity School work to challenge students to become the best version of themselves while in grades 6 through 8 but also to work with families and children to prepare to get scholarships into good Catholic high schools and continue to monitor and guide them to get scholarships into colleges and/or vocational training. 
4. The Nativity School is sponsored by the Jesuits and is also one of the groups that Fr. Jim Galluzzo donates clothing and school supplies to. 
5. Many adults wonder why some neglected poor minority children go on to perform acts of violence and destruction in our cities. Rather than investing money on more prison space, why not do things to help prevent young people from such crime by giving them the encouragement and tools to become productive citizens. 
6. Three of our council members (Michael Chau, Oanh Nguyen and myself) have visited the school and participated in their annual fundraising lunch and have committed to making monthly donations to help the Nativity School. For a brief glimpse of what the school has done for its graduates I recommend you view the You Tube  Knights of Columbus John Clare Council #15485: Introducing St. Andrew Nativity School K (kofc15485.blogspot.com) 
7. In addition to my request for a Council financial donation to the Nativity School, we might also help publicize the needs of the school, gather children’s clothes and school supplies for the children, and become a model for other Oregon KC Councils to also consider supporting this school. 

 

Please take the time to review this important information.

Tom Owens