Lynn Ables Teen Challenge

On Tuesday, August 8th, Lynn Ables of "Teen Challenge" on Hwy. 7 was pleased to accept a charitable donation of $2,500 from the Knights of Columbus.

Tom Donnelly, of Council 10208 in Hot Springs Village, explained that an anonymous benefactor, donating to the Campaign for People with Intellectual Disabilities (CPID), asked if a donation for Teen Challenge would be accepted by the Knights. Of course the donation was gladly accepted, and this charitable outreach was passed along to Teen Challenge.

Bob and Mary Anne Honzik

Sir Knight Robert and Mary Anne Honzik.  Brother Honzik was the Chairperson for the Seminarian Support Dinner; Mary Anne procured, prepared, organized, and headed the decoration detail that did such a splendid color-coordinated and beautiful set up of the tables and the hall.  Bob and Mary Anne’s efforts in planning and overseeing the detailed invitations and close coordination required to get the Bishop, Monsignors, and seminarians on the same sheet of music in the same place at the same time was phenomenal.  They also were responsible for arranging the entertainment, caterer, menu, ticket printing, poster printing, bulletin announcements, coordination within the parish and with the chaplain, recruiting reliable folks to take on some of the burden, and overseeing each aspect necessary to pull something like this together.   What an effort and what a fabulous outcome for our seminarians.  Collectively, the Council raised nearly $30,000 at this event (slightly augmented by funds on hand), enabling us to present a check to the Bishop for $25,000, with another $5,000 going directly to the Diocese of Little Rock, and the parish presented another $30,000 to the Bishop.

2016 Knight of the Year - Mike Frantz

Sir Knight Mike Frantz was recognized by the Council as the Knight of the Year (calendar) for 2016.  Brother Frantz was nominated to represent the Council’s Knight of the Year for the State Convention.  Brother Frantz successes and contributions during 2016 were significant and worthy of this nomination.  He was instrumental in the success of the Treasure Sale as he led the teams to coordinate and execute all the pick-ups, loading and unloading of truckload after truckload of furniture and incidentals from up all over the Village.  He was an active and always reliable officer of the Council, a member of our Exemplification Team, actively participated in CPID, assisted with the parish breakfasts, was a stalwart on the Disaster Relief Team, Coordinated the Arkansas Blind Camp Bowling, participated in the Food Basket Program, Food for Seniors, participated and volunteered in the Crosses for Life effort, was a member of Helping Hands, gave over 5 gallons of blood at our blood drives, helped with cheese and sausage sales, the baby bottle campaign, helped with the Youth Free Throw Contests, and was active in Perpetual Adoration.  It is with great pleasure that your Brothers recognized you as our own Knight of the Year for 2016.  Thank you for all you did and continue to do, Brother Mike!

Knight of the Month Ralph Melenson

Sir Knight Ralph Melenson worked closely with the Hot Springs KofC to plan, organize, and execute the St. John’s Charity Golf Tournament to raise funds for the school.  Brother Melenson was integral in facilitating local business sponsorship's, recruiting teams, and many other tasks required to put on an event like this.  All his hard work was key to the final results--$6,000 raised for St. John’s Catholic School.

Knight of the Month Bob Bowman

Sir Knight Bob Bowman was integral to the success of the Seminarian Support Dinner on the 14th of July, 2017. He was responsible for ticket sales, table assignments, meal ordering and selection, collecting and accounting of funds, arranging for sales representatives, and volunteering before and after Masses for two weekends. Brother Bowman’s attention to detail, recording, and disseminating information to all concerned contributed to the highly successful KofC endeavor and is a reflection of his commitment to the Council and it’s worth charity causes.

Presenting the Knights of Columbus donation to their scholarship fund were (left to right) Milt Spaniel, Jack Barry, Bill Veal and Walter Free.

Logo acknowledging HSV Knights of Columbus as a Junior Golf sponsor.

Here is some history of Junior Golf:

The purpose of the Junior Golf Association shall be to foster, encourage, and promote junior golf activities for young golfers of both sexes between the ages of 8 through a senior in high school.  The goals are to accomplish the following:

• To provide opportunities for development of social, physical, emotional and mental skills.
• To teach juniors real life lessons and to influence their character development and good sportsmanship.
• To teach the rules and etiquette of golf.
• To secure instructional practices, playing privileges and other concessions.
• To develop lifelong golfers who will continue to play long after the program is over.

The idea for Junior Golf and the founder of the program was Bill Veal.  He received a lot of advice and assistance from Al Wygant, Carolyn Rawlinson, Rick Ross, John Paul and many other volunteers.

The Junior Golf Program was approved by the Property Owners Association Board of Directors in 1997.  The first year for the program was 1998.  The program averages 290 juniors each year.  There is an average turnover of 85 juniors each year.  The program is open to all juniors; no juniors are turned away due to family financial hardships.

In September 1999, we received our state charter as a non-profit corporation, thanks to Merek Rowe of the law firm of Farrar, Reis, Rowe, Nicolosi and Williams who filed the necessary papers.

In December 1999, we received notification that we qualified as a 501(c) (3) thanks to Dennis Fason, CPA of the accounting firm of Jordon, Woosley, Crone, and Keaton who filed the necessary papers.

In 2005 the IRS approved a scholarship program for Junior Golf Association.  As of 2013, $2,000 in scholarships have been awarded to 42 Juniors.

Jack Barry has been the President since 2002.  Under his leadership, the program continues to grow and prosper.