Our Council was formed on April 01, 2005. Officer’s were elected and sworn in by District 5 Deputy Robert McNamara. We will only comment on the major Activities.

Our First Activity was an Acolyte Breakfast held at the Casa Blanca Casino on Saturday, Jul 16,’05. Fr. Clarence was present along with our Youth Committee Director, Br. Perkowski, GK and 11 Acolyte’s with several parents and other Council members. Our First annual Arts & Crafts Show was a sounding success. Brother’s Mashburn and his wife, Irene secured over 25 Vendor’s. It was held in the Virgin River Convention Center with our Lady Knight’s running a bake sale; Brother Knight’s manning the soft drinks bar and the Lion’s Club selling fast food. The Three (3) day sale netted our Council over $3,000.

In September we had our Second (1^st was as roundtable) Knight’s Picnic.  Our attendance was doubled to 50 people. Music was provided by Brother’s Roybal and Perkowski.  We picked up at least one (1) new member from our invited guests.  Bunkerville Catholic Church held it’s annual Fall Fiesta Sep 30 & Oct 1. Our council sponsored the Silent Auction run by Br. Crain & wife Patty; Br. Perkowski & wife Linda manned the Bingo Booth; Soda Booth was manned by Br. McGinty.  Many Brothers’ and their wife’s assisted in all the booths.  A Tootsie Roll Drive was held on Oct 15, chaired by Br. Candelaria with collections totaling $1039. A check for $821 was presented at the State Council’s Annual Pasta Banquet to the Mesquite Special Olympics which has been adopted by our Council. Five Brothers attended the Carmelo Retreat House in Redlands, CA in late Oct for 3 days.

In Nov & Dec, our Council conducted the 2^nd Annual Flag retirement Ceremony.  It was bigger and better than the first held last year.  We have received many plaudits from the community for holding this patriotic event. We were involved in serving Thanksgiving Dinner at the Senior Citizen’s Center; conducting our Soccer Challenge; obtained turkey’s donated from the parish; collecting $50,000 for our new Church Building Fund due to the work of Br.  Wagner; setting up a Prayer Tree with individual decorations noting parish member’s to be remembered; ringing Salvation Army Christmas Bell’s; started the 2^nd $50K phase (red) for the Building Fund Drive; packed turkey’s and food baskets and distributed to over 100 recipients at our local Food Bank; collected toys for over 100 children to be distributed in Scenic, NV; held our Basketball Free Throw contest and selected our 1^st Biannual KofC Family, Irene & Wallace Mashburn.

In Jan, we cranked up our Seminary sale of raffle tickets. We started collecting donations that came in along with our annual dues receipts; selected the Regular and Reserve Firemen of the year and presented them $50 EE Bonds at the City Council Meeting on Jan 24; assisted the Special Olympics in Basketball after completing a six week Golf Program.  We have started coaching the Special Olympics Swimming Program and their Track & Field Program on Mar 11.  We are awarding the Policeman of the Year award with a bond to be presented on Mar 14 at the City Council Meeting.  Br. Wagner has collected $39K on the 2^nd Building Fund Dr (red) so the 3^rd increment (blue) probably will not start until May 2006. Each $50k increment is matched by the owner of the three largest Casinos in Mesquite, Mr. Black.  We have accomplished many supportive tasks in the Church for Fr. Bob, our new pastor.  We are scheduled to sponsor the Summer Games for the Special Olympics in Apr ’06 and complete the two (2) programs started in Mar.

Mesquite Council #13754 is now over 40 Member’s and should meet our quota for the year.  I want to thank all of our Brother’s for all their hard work and willingness to help in our Activities which should be forty three (43) for the year. I believe we have made a good reputation in Mesquite and our community now recognizes the Knight’s of Columbus.  We also want to thank D5D and Council #9899 for their help and assistance throughout our short existence.

James F. McCluskey, GK