Grand Knight: Hiram A. May, JR.
Grand Knight: Robert A. Fernandez
Bob considers himself as the “interim” Grand Knight as he was elected in July 1993 when the council sold it’s home to a major car dealer in Baton Rouge. You guessed it, RIGHT ON THE CORNER-RIGHT ON THE PRICE for 1.25 million. The council spent the balance of the year looking for a suitable location. In the meantime the council hired an architect. Meetings were held in a rented warehouse next door..
Bob was reelected as Grand Knight the next year while the new council home was being built. Bob was given the job of buying furniture for the new council home. He was congratulated for doing an outstanding job.
Grand Knight: Kenny Gendron
Grand Knight: Steven Adams
Grand Knight: Richard Goudeau
Richard kept the momentum rolling as the council improved each year under his watchful eye. In his first year, he overcame many objections to get a big screen television to promote fraternity. He continued many of the community programs and improved on the St. George Parish activities. This improved our standing in the state to number 9 overall.
The millennium year concluded Richards two years at the helm. The state convention was held in Baton Rouge, so it was a little more difficult for “renegade” Bob Wygle to live up to the hype of previous state conventions. We were ranked as the number 7 council in the state for 2000. We had some outstanding speakers including Father Jeff Bayhi, Seminarian Greg Roussell, Police Chief Greg Phares, radio personality Richard Condon, and District Attorney Doug Moreau to name a few. It was very diverse and exciting program for our family socials.
Grand Knight: Byron Bordelon
Our council was on the move, and new GK Byron pushed everyone who was willing to help to come up with new ideas to encourage more involvement and concentrate mainly on the families. Our efforts were recognized by the State Council because we tallied a perfect 1,000 points in the program/administration scoring and finished as THIRD in the State Deputy’s Award rankings because of the tiebreaker system.
New programs included honoring a St. George Parish (non-KC) Family of the Month, incredible holiday children’s parties at Halloween, Christmas, & Easter, Kingfish Hockey night once a month, Family Movie Night at the Hall one Saturday every month, thanking our wives with a Ladies Night Out once every quarter, and sponsoring young missionaries traveling abroad. Of course, we continued many tried and true programs such as Quarterly Communion followed by a brunch at the hall, the monthly Window Washing, Coffee & Donuts after mass, Nun’s Appreciation Night, and a spectacular Crawfish Boil/Family Picnic with plenty water activities for the children. Now let’s see what we can do next year!
The second year proved to be more challenging, as the big dip in the Stock Market, put a crimp in the funds available to do all the planned activities. We canceled a few of the
council programs but were able to keep up with everything for the church and community. We cleaned out the membership rolls of deadbeat members who had not paid in years, deceased members on the roster for years, etc. This put us below 300 members for the first time in many years. In spite of the many hardships and only using half the budget, we managed to finish in the top 30 in the state.
Grand Knight: Greg Accardo
Grand Knight: Michael J. Coleman
Grand Knight: Travis J. Blanchard
Travis hit the ground running as Grand Knight. In July 2005, Mother of Mercy KC4030 hosted the LA State KCLS in the St. George Activity Center. We were able to squeeze over 250 Knights from around the state into the Activity Center for the annual leadership seminar.
KC 4030 also set the record for feeding that many Knights so quickly.
In 05-07, KC4030 focused on our staple service projects such as nursing and veterans home visits, church window washing and tootsie roll drives. We also hosted the new youth soccer challenge on the district and area levels.
In cooperation with the St. George Men’s Club, we were able to donate the gross proceeds of one Lenten fish fry to a burn victim. KC4030 started off the 06-07 fraternal year in great fashion by hosting a breakfast for Special Olympians. We were also surprised with a visit by Mrs. Eunice Kennedy Shriver, the founder of Special Olympics. With the help its members KC4030 finished each fraternal year between 05-07 in the top 10% of the councils in the State of Louisiana.
Grand Knights: Robert Fernandez & Rupert R. Rodriguez
Rupert Rodriguez PGK served from July 2007 through January 2008,
Robert “Bob” Fernandez PGK served from January 2008 through July 2009.
Bob Fernandez previously served the council as Grand Knight from 1993 through 1995. It was the first time in the history of the Council that we had no one willing to step up to the plate and run for Grand Knight. Both Rupert and Bob are to be commended.
The council continued to perform its activities in the community by visiting the local nursing homes on a monthly basis and the War Veterans Home in Jackson on a quarterly basis. Church activities include serving coffee and donuts quarterly, washing the windows at St. George, cleaning palms for Palm Sunday and providing Safety and Security at church for Holy Thursday and Good Friday.
Our Council is fortunate to be able to raise funds along with the Men’s Club at St. George during the Lenten Fish Fries. The council’s net profit runs around $3,500.00. Each quarter we honor the Families of the Month by attending Mass and having a reception afterwards where they are given a plaque. The council also sponsors activities for the scouts by providing them with shelter for their van which we bought for the troop, and which we recently had repainted with their logo. Bob looks forward to working with the new Grand Knight of Council 4030, Ronald Coco.