Cauldron

Issue date: 10/30/07 Section: Sports & Clubs

Media Credit: Laura Avila KOC members (from left) J.J. Durrenberger, Clint Mendona, Grover Green and the Rev. Jack Whitley.

UST's Knights of Columbus Vincent J. Guinan Council 13940 received more awards than any other council in the country on Sept. 29 at the Knights of Columbus National College Conference in New Haven, Conn.

The University's council competed against collegiate, community and parish chapters. The Vincent J. Guinan Council won three of the 10 awards issued at the conference. The council was honored with the family activity award, the greatest percentage gain award, the greatest percentage insurance increase award and was named a star council because it ranks among the top 10 percent of all the chapters in the nation.

Four representatives of the Vincent J. Guinan council attended the conference including Grand Knight Grover Green, senior history major, head of the council's admissions committee; Chancellor J.J. Durrenberger, sophomore history major; first Grand Knight Clint Mendonca, senior psychology and philosophy major; and the Rev. Jack Whitley, council adviser and chaplain.

The family activity award was given in recognition of the council's pro-life lecture featuring theology professor Janet Smith, who discussed alternative contraceptive methods in fall 2006.

Green said that KOC members met with University administration to discuss a protest held on campus by Planned Parenthood supporting abortion rights, and successfully banned Planned Parenthood from protesting on campus again.

Whitley, who became a Knight when he was 18, said he is proud of the council's work in the pro-life discussion. "I am delighted and overwhelmed by the amount of work they have done," he said. "They are a great chapter of the United States."

Whitley said he became a KOC after he was impressed of the care they took of his father, a World War I veteran. Whitley is also the Arch-Diocesan Chaplain of the Houston-Galveston chapter.

The council received two membership awards: the greatest percentage gain award, for almost doubling its membership in one year, and the greatest percentage insurance increase award. "We had a 94.1 percent increase of members in one year," Green said. "We also had a 14.5 percent increase in insurance."

Continued...

Page 1 of 2 next >

Article Tools