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Over the August 8-9 weekend Monsignor Scott Friend, the Vicar General and Vocations Director for the Catholic Diocese of Little Rock, visited Sacred Heart along with seven seminarians.  Monsignor Friend conducted all of the weekend masses.  Following each of the masses there was an informal gathering in the Lower Hall, and it included wine and cheese on Saturday evening with coffee and donuts on Sunday morning.  The seminarians were introduced, and each gave a brief summary of his background.  Parishioners were given the opportunity to ask questions of both the seminarians and Monsignor Friend. 

The guest speakers for the August 4 membership meeting were from St . John's and St. Mary's parishes in Hot Springs.  They spoke about their efforts to provide assistance to a village in Haiti, a project originally started by Father Hart of St Mary's before he was transferred in July to another parish.

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Project co-chair Brenda Sanders gave the presentation complemented by pictures taken by Jackie Tomassi when she and her husband, Pietro, travelled to the village earlier this year with a variety of supplies for the teachers and students at the school.  Their current emphasis is upon raising money to build a wall around the compound to protect both the children and also the equipment, including computers and solar panels. 

The knights responded to the cause by appoving a motion to donate $500.00 from the $900.00 unspecified charitable giving fund.  An additional $243 was collected from the generous knights by passing the bucket around during the meeting.  A $743.00 check from Council 10208 was subsequently mailed to St. Mary's for the Haiti Mission Project. 

The first step in identifying the programs for 2009-2010 was taken at a June 16 joint meeting of the incoming and outgoing officers and directors.  Chaplain Monsignor Malone also attended.  After consensus was reached on a preliminary list, Program Director Dick Breckon conducted a series of meetings with individuals to finalize the list and to recruit coordinators for the programs.

There were several new initiatives included in the planning:

• Blood Donor Recruitment
• Christ in Christmas Billboard
• Arkansas Pregnancy Resource Center (St Joseph’s Helpers) Support
• CCD Teacher Recognition
• Support Sacred Heart of Jesus Helping Hands
•  20th Anniversary Celebration

A special thanks goes to the July 14 blood donors who responded to the Knights of Columbus recruitment efforts.  Both Jo Elliott and the Red Cross coordinators were very appreciative, because the number of donors in the summer is typically fewer, but the need for the gift of life remains high.

Using some precious vacation family time to donate blood (and catch up on his reading) is brother knight Jimmie Rogers, one of eighteen Council 10208 members to donate blood on July 14.

The bowling portion of the National Camps for Blind Children (NCBC) was held at the Fiesta Bowl

Waiting for the campers to arrive are (l-r) Keith Weatherbee, Ed Pilarski, George Vierling, Mike Franz, and Joy Weatherbee.

A new feature offered by the Knights this year was to invite teens enrolled in the Sacred Heart of Jesus CCD program to participate in this social ministry.

This new web site has been under development since the officers of Council 10208 gave its approval last spring.  The technical architect and co-manager of this project is brother knight Mike Miller.  Grand Knight John Bodensteiner and his wife, Carolyn, have been gathering and editing the information from a variety of sources, with Carolyn massaging it into the required formats.  On an exploratory basis, John will use the home page, rather than the monthly newsletter, as the primary vehicle to keep in touch with the members.

The web site is being developed for a variety of reasons including to: