From the Mouths of Babes - PWID

From the Mouths of Babes

Sometimes we talk our talk and plan our strategies on what and how we need to approach recruiting new knights. We think and use buzz words and fancy terms and never seem to deliver the right message. Some of us who have been knights for 5 years to over 30 and 40 years struggle with the right reasons to become a knight. This weekend I had the privilege to work with so many great people and as they passed through the Kino room to talk about the problems we all face in recruitment and retention.

I found a much smaller group of people who came with their dads and in some cases their granddads and moms and grandmas to help because they had to but they did it well.
I talked to most of them and gathered their feelings and thoughts which were pure and simple and honest and genuine. I enjoyed each of them; give me them in 10 years and watch out. I could conquer the world.

We sometimes forget about  the contribution of young people however I was able to obtain a clear understanding of some of their feelings and ideas. But there was one who stands out above them all. She is a very sweet 10 year old who is the daughter of one of our knights and co-chairman of the PWID drive, Al Velosa. Her name is Arianna. She made me blush with her writing on the whiteboard in the Kino Room. This is what she wrote:
"Reasons to Join the Knights of Columbus"

1. It’s fun
2. You help people in need
3. You meet new people
4. You get to do different things
5. You learn different things
Can You Think of More???!!!???”

She wrote this on the whiteboard and left it there for us to look at and think about as she joined her dad, big brother and younger sister on another hour of coverage at Walmart.
She wrote this after reading and remembering that the inside of the Tootsie Roll wrapper states that there are 1.7 million knights and that over $1 billion dollars went to
community service programs. It also states that it takes over 594 million hours of volunteer work to support those programs.

All I can say is Arianna could teach us all a thing or two about what counts and how to approach life and maybe the solution to our recruitment approach. Above everything else, this young 10 year old took $20 of her saved allowance money and contributed that money to the PWID Fund. Those of you who have experienced bringing up children can understand what an exceptional thing this was for her to do.

She gets a huge star in my book and deserves a thank you from all of us. By the way, she was just the one who rose above the others; each of the children who helped us deserve stars for
their helping us as well.

Brother Fred Falgiano