Knights Of Columbus Serving Relgious Ed Teaching Needs

The St. Joseph Council #4810 in Greenlawn continues to grow its service ministries in support of St. Francis Parish in many ways. We have always been involved, directly or indirectly, in religious ed programs at the parishes we support, especially St. Francis and Our Lady Queen of Martyrs in Centerport. 

Responding to an Urgent Need

Near the beginning of the current school year, we received word in late August that the program was short a few teachers with time running out. The current director, Anita Modelewski, was very much against having to increase current classroom capacity; due to pandemic physical spacing concerns, this might have been necessitated by the teacher shortage. All it took was one call to the Knights. One announcement at the next Knights meeting in late August, and immediately three more teachers {all VIRTUS trained and certified) volunteered and helped to fully satisfy the shortage. The Knights now make up around 20% of the total number of teachers at St. Francis. Most are still in the workforce, but find the time to commit to this important ministry. 

A Unique Service Perspective

I learned many years ago in school that a male teacher’s perspective is unique and balancing, especially in religious education. It really helped my childhood perception about how men can be committed to the Church and children’s religious education needs in a society which, at least back then, did not illustrate this much of the time. As Knights of Columbus, we try to bring our “charity/unity/fraternity/patriotism” focus to St. Francis and the community at large. Some of our other service initiatives to the St. Francis religious ed program have included:

• Halloween Party set up, take down and staffing
• Sponsorship of the annual Keep Christ in Christmas Poster contest
• CYO basketball Free Throw Contest- which included a number of St. Francis boys and girls
• Confirmation sponsors- on rare occasions when a student needs a Catholic sponsor volunteer

We are always looking for ways to help St. Francis and our other parishes fulfill their many worthwhile needs, and we hope other interested men in the parish will consider joining us in our religious and community outreach efforts.