Current Projects
In service to one. In service to all.
Disaster Response Program
The Knights have rallied nationwide to help with the relief effort in Florida because of hurricane Michael. We continue our relief efforts in North Caroline after hurricane Florence. The Knights of Columbus has a long history of lending a helping hand in times of distress. The Order was one of the first organizations to provide financial support to families of fallen first responders following the terrorist attacks on the United States on Sept. 11, 2001. The Knights of Columbus also led a multi million-dollar recovery effort in Louisiana in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. In addition, Knights were on the ground with supplies in a matter of hours after Super storm Sandy devastated the Eastern seaboard.
St. Mark School
We provide yearly support to the St. Mark’s Parish School for the development of higher education. We help support the school financially and provide role models for the students to look up to. This year we will be manning the Wood Booth in the annual Fall Festival, on November 3rd. We are looking forward to working with all the kids. We are committed to furthering the physical education of the kids by helping setup the school’s free throw contest. Which begins in January 2019 and goes up to state championships in Fresno in March.
Coats for kids
The Knights of Columbus developed the Coats for Kids program, which allows councils across North America the opportunity to purchase new winter coats for children at a discount and to distribute them to children in need in their local communities. Families struggling to make ends meet use their scarce resources to meet the most basic needs and cannot always afford the vital essential of a new winter coat. The goal of the Coats for Kids program is to ensure that no child in North America goes without a coat during the winter season. Through the dedication of councils across the United States and Canada, hundreds of thousands of new winter coats have been distributed to children since program inception.
Special Olympics
The Knights of Columbus has a unique partnership with the Special Olympics and has helped disabled athletes train for and compete in games around the world. Knights of Columbus councils have assisted with all aspects of the program from fundraising to feeding the athletes, organizing and judging events, and providing equipment and awards. Without the support of the Knights, participants would not be able to train for the events that they love. Participating councils provide at least $2,000 in donations or 200 service hours in a fraternal year.
Global wheelchair mission,
The Gift of Mobility
The American Wheelchair Mission, founded by Christopher Joseph Lewis (son of Jerry Lewis, national chairman of the spokesman for the Muscular Dystrophy Association for 60 years), is a non-profit organization whose mission is to deliver brand new free wheelchairs and mobility aids to physically disabled children, teens and adults throughout the world who are without mobility and lack the means to acquire such devices. Since 2003 Knights of Columbus have sponsored the delivery of over 50,000 brand new wheelchairs throughout the world. The American Wheelchair Mission estimates that there are over 100 million people, world-wide, who need and cannot afford a wheelchair. It is further estimated that, on average, when you consider family, friends, teachers, employers and others, for every wheelchair delivered the lives of about 10 people are impacted in a very positive way. This extraordinary program, embraced first by Knights in California, is now one of our Supreme Council’s “Featured 8” programs.
Rancho San Antonio
The Knights are solely responsible for the care and upkeep of the Rancho San Antonio. It is the mission of Rancho San Antonio to provide a person centered, trauma informed, culturally relevant and therapeutic environment where troubled youth can successfully increase resiliency, develop skills, values and personal responsibility needed to rejoin their families and/or other permanent connection in their communities.
Scholarships
The Knights of Columbus offer scholarships for seminarians, religious sisters and brothers, and students at St. Mark School.
St. Mark's Catholic Church
Annual supporter of the St. Mark’s Catholic Church for various causes.
Project Medishare
More than a year after the quake devastated Haiti, the children injured in the January 2010 earthquake in Haiti have renewed hope thanks to Project Medishare for Haiti partners, the Knights of Columbus. On March 5, the Knights of Columbus unveiled their latest effort to help Haitian children injured in the earthquake, with the opening of a state-of-the-art prosthetic and rehabilitation center at Bernard Mevs Project Medishare Hospital. The Knights made a commitment to give every child in Haiti who is in need of a prosthetic just that.
Habitat for humanity
Knights of Columbus councils help give shelter, particularly by supporting Habitat for Humanity. In 2015 alone, Knights donated $667,063 and over 1 million volunteer hours. Habitat for Humanity is a nonprofit, Christian organization founded in 1976 that seeks to eliminate poverty housing and homelessness one family at a time.