12th Annual March for Life, Victoria, B.C., May 9, 2019

Approximately 2000 people gathered on a beautiful warm spring day in Victoria, BC for the 12th Annual Western Canada "March for Life". The event began at 12:00 noon at St. Andrew's Cathedral with a Mass presided by Bishop of Victoria, Gary Gordon and concelebrated by numerous priests. Because of a serious fire at the Centennial Square area, the actual march down Government St. was cancelled this year for safety precautions and all ‘marchers’ assembled on the lawn of the Legislature at around 2:00 p.m. As in past years, the crowd included men, women and children from all walks of life and from many corners of our province. They were welcomed by a St.Andrew's High School musical group and were addressed by six very excellent speakers, including: Archbishop J. Michael Miller of Vancouver; Stephanie Gray, international pro-life speaker and author; Autumn Lindsay, spokesperson for Students for Life of America; and Rod Taylor, of the Christian Heritage Party; Anna Nienhuis, researcher for the national campaign ‘We Need A Law’;  and, Rev. Ted VanSpronsen, pastor of the Yarrow Canadian Reformed Church. Each speaker, in his or her own way, exhorted the crowd to keep spreading the pro-life message and to continue to press governments for greater support of End of Life and Palliative Care initiatives. Our very sincere ‘thank you’ to all the people from St.Peter’s who participated, including the Knights from our Council. Thank you one and all!

Top picture: Some of our State Officers with friends. 

Left picture: P.S.D. Dan O'Hara and S.D. Ming Lau. 

For more pictures, please visit the “Gallery” page.

Admittance (1st) & Formation (2nd) Degree Exemplifications, April 4 & 15, 2018

On Wednesday, April 4, 2018, at 7:30 pm, before our last regular monthly meeting, we conducted another First Degree exemplification for our district. We had four candidates taking their 1st Degree: (in picture l to r) Zozimus Fernandes, Vincy Macwan, Paulinus Ihezouh, for our council, and Ken Walsh, for Council #4253, Duncan. Then on Sunday, April 15, 2018, we hosted a Formation Degree Exemplification  at which six brother Knights received the honours of the 2nd Degree, including our three new members.   We wish to thank the members of the First & Second Degree Teams for putting on the Degrees with such great dignity and inspiration, and our Worthy D.D. Glenn Wynans, and Worthy Field Agent, Joseph Kong, for their presence and support. We were also very happy with the good number of Knights who attended in support of all the candidates. Thank you Brothers for your great support! We congratulate all the candidates and wish them many years of happy and fruitful service to and for their councils. 

Knighthood (3rd) Degree Exemplification, June 3, 2018

In the afternoon of Sunday, June 3, 2018, Holy Trinity Council #9990, Nanaimo, was pleased to host a Knighthood Exemplification for our District at Trinity Centre, Nanaimo. We were pleased to have had 6 candidates take their 3rd degree. We now welcome them to full Knighthood and our congratulations go out to them all, but especially to the three brothers of our own council, namely, (in picture l to r): Bros. Vincy Macwan, Paulinus Ihezouh, and Zozimus Fernandes. We were honoured by the presence of our Worthy D.D., Bro. Glenn Wymans, and thank him for his continued support and encouragement. To the officers and the entire degree team, our very sincere 'thank you' for a job so well done. We also wish to thank all Brothers who attended, and those who helped in any way, especially those who were involved in the actual degree, registration, setup & clean-up. A very special 'thank you' for the coffee and all the goodies that were served after the knighting. Thank you one & all!

Fun Day at Park Avenue School, May 27, 2017

On May 27, 2017, seven of our brother Knights participated in the bi-annual Park Avenue Fun Day fund raiser. For about  6 hours, Bros.  Dan DePape, Greg Large, Tony Bucar, Joe Walker, Bob Nielsen, Jim Cassino and Hans Fadum worked along side a large number of parents and teachers providing various fun activities for the children. While Bro. Hans Fadum “punched” the tickets, the other six Knights were in charge of the hamburger and hot dog barbeques — and what a charge it was; they prepared well over 300 burgers and hot dogs! Well done, Brothers.. Thank you!  

For more pictures, please visit the “Gallery” page.

(Italic narrative taken from: Knights of Columbus, Charities, Coats for Kids web page, at www.kofc.org)

“When families struggle to clothe their children with warm coats in the winter, Knights of Columbus councils help meet this basic need with the Coats for Kids program. As part of the Neighbors Helping Neighbors, Coats for Kids allows councils across North America to purchase new winter coats for children at a discount and to distribute them to children in need in their local communities.

Since the program’s launching in 2009, more than 310,000 coats have been distributed in 49 states and all 10 Canadian provinces. In winter 2016 alone, the Knights of Columbus distributed 78,576 coats in 1,600 communities throughout the U.S. and Canada, including events at military bases, in Native American communities, at inner-city neighborhoods and through partnerships with local police and fire departments...

[As for example,] in Connecticut 4,680 coats were distributed during the 2015-16 fraternal in 35 communities. At another Coats for Kids event, this time on the Monday prior to Super Bowl L, more than 270 students at Our Lady of the Visitation school in San Francisco received new coats. California Knights of Columbus and representatives from the Supreme Council headquarters joined Football Hall of Famers Anthony Muñoz (Cincinnati Bengals) and Dave Casper (Oakland Raiders), Raiders Head Coach Jack Del Rio and his wife Linda, and several current NFL players and coaches to distribute the coats to the students at the Catholic grammar school...

These are just some of the thousands of activities that the Knights of Columbus members regularly conduct in their communities to help those in need…”

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We are proud to add our council to that list. Through a very generous anonymous donation to our Council, we were able to purchase 12 boys and 12 girls coats for both Bayview and Park Avenue schools. In the top picture, our Worthy G.K. Greg Large presents the coats to Kevin Brand, principal, & Michelle Swecera,  Community School Coordinator, of Bayview School; and in the picture below, he presents the coats to R. Dhillon, principal of Park Avenue School.........

Coats for Kids, Nov. 2017 .......

and.......Coats for Kids, Dec. 2018

In December 2018, our council and brother council, Holy Trinity#9990, joined forces to purchase 48 more coats for the children of the Ahousaht First Nations on the west coast of Vancouver Island. On Sunday December 16, G.K. Greg Large and Bro. Tony Bucar joined G.K. Aurel  Muego and Bro. Mick Brzoza of Holy Trinity Council loading four large boxes of coats into a truck and headed for Port Alberni to meet up with Sisters Janet Byron & Lilia Samaniego along with D.D. Glenn Wynans. As soon as the weather will again be safe for crossings from Tofino to Ahousaht, the Sisters will assist in the distribution of these coats. Ahousaht, also spelled Ahousat, is the principal settlement on Flores Island, in British Columbia, Canada. Accessible only by water or air, Ahousaht is a small community predominantly composed of First Nations people from the Nuu-chah-nulth nation.

In the picture, Bro. Tony Bucar (left) and G.K. Greg Large present the coats to the Sisters.