Supreme Knight’s Award Session recognizes International Program Award winners, Family of the Year and the first recipient of the Blessed Michael McGivney Medal
The Knights of Columbus welcomed guests to its 140th Supreme Convention with the Supreme Knight’s Award Session, held at the historic Grand Ole Opry House on Aug. 1. The awards session annually recognizes individual Knights, councils, assemblies and jurisdictions for outstanding achievement in the areas of membership growth and retention, charitable outreach, fraternal leadership, and insurance sales and service.
International program awards were given to K of C councils that conducted an outstanding program in each area of the organization’s Faith in Action program categories over the past year: faith, family, community and life.
The session also recognized the Knights’ International Family of the Year and featured the inaugural presentation of the Blessed McGivney Medal, which will annually honor a Knights of Columbus chaplain.
More information about the International Program Award winners, the Family of the Year and Blessed Michael McGivney Medal recipient can be found below.
Faith Program of the Year
“The Fisherman” is a men’s apostolate created by Sts. Anne and Joachim Council 11930 in Fargo, N.D., to help men grow in faith and virtue while also training them to become better servant leaders. Participants spend eight months praying together and studying Scripture, on topics related to missionary discipleship. Candidates learn about authentic masculinity, prayer and encountering Christ through the sacraments. The course ends with a workshop on evangelization, and graduates are asked to discern whether God is calling them to lead a small group through the program the next year. VIDEO: North Dakota Knights Become Fishers of Men
Family Program of the Year
When Fort Belvoir (Va.) Council 11170 learned that an estimated 200 families at the U.S. Army base had trouble putting food on the table, it created the Leave No Military Family Behind initiative to provide assistance. The Knights’ initial goal was to provide $5,000 in commissary gift cards to Fort Belvoir’s Army Community Service; they succeeded in doubling that amount, and their efforts helped more than 150 military families during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. VIDEO: Virginia Knights Leave No Military Family Behind
Community Program of the Year
Members of St. Wojciech Patron of Poland Council 15267 in Tomaszów Lubelski, Poland, helped construct a “Tent of Hope and Mercy” to welcome Ukrainian refugees to the Polish border town of Hrebenne only three days after the Russian invasion. Volunteers provided the refugees — mostly women, children and the elderly — with around-the-clock assistance, including food, childcare, first aid and transportation to reception points. The Mercy Center, as it came to be named, was enlarged March 15 with support from the Order’s Ukraine Solidarity Fund and the Catholic Near East Welfare Association, and a chapel was added where priests and religious sisters offered refugees spiritual support. The Mercy Center hosted an estimated 300,000 people before it closed due to greatly reduced traffic at the border. VIDEO: Polish Knights Recognized for Welcoming Ukrainian Refugees
Life Program of the Year
St. Clare of Assisi Council 9708 in Houston has supported Loving Choice, a local pregnancy care center, from its earliest days. This past year, members of Council 9708 provided labor and supplies to help the center renovate and expand its space by 50%. One Knight sponsored a construction crew to install flooring and baseboards; other Knights upgraded electric outlets, painted rooms and built custom cabinets. In addition to their hands-on work, the council donated $2,500 in baby items collected from their parish and a check for $6,500. VIDEO: Pregnancy Resource Center Expands with Help from Texas Knights
International Family of the Year
The Sewell family of Douglasville, Ga. — Austin, Tracey and their eight children — exemplify their faith in dedicated service to parish, archdiocese and community. Austin, a member of St. John Paul II Council 10821, has held many leadership positions within the Knights of Columbus, including deputy grand knight, district warden and membership director. His two oldest — Robert Austin Sewell III (22) and Logan Sewell (21) — are also Knights. Members of the family are active within their parish, St. Theresa of the Child Jesus, as lectors, altar servers and extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion. They also volunteer frequently at K of C and other community events. When the local pregnancy resource center organized a Walk for Life, Austin and three of his sons walked in the fundraiser; when Council 10821 held a golf fundraiser, Tracey and other family members staffed a refreshment stand at the event. In addition, the Archdiocese of Atlanta recently recognized the Sewells for their many years of support for the archdiocese’s annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration. VIDEO: A Family Committed to Serve
Blessed Michael McGivney Medal
The recipient of the inaugural Blessed Michael McGivney Medal is Father Matthew Keller of the Diocese of Gallup.
Father Keller gave up a budding country music songwriting career when he entered seminary in the 1990s. He joined the Knights of Columbus following his ordination due to the support he received from the Order’s RSVP program. Since then, he helped found multiple new councils and served as New Mexico state chaplain for 15 years.
As state chaplain, Father Keller personally reached out to the bishops of New Mexico and received permission to be in regular contact with the state’s priests, leading to a resurgence of chaplains attending meetings, a spiritual revival among councils and a surge in membership. The New Mexico jurisdiction achieved membership growth awards four times during his tenure.
Now the vicar general of the Diocese of Gallup, Father Keller has been instrumental in fostering a liturgical and eucharistic revival in New Mexico and Arizona. He has a great devotion to the Eucharist and introduced eucharistic adoration at all state meetings while state chaplain. His eucharistic processions feature prominently in materials created by the Knights of Columbus to support the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ National Eucharistic Revival.
Over the years, Father Keller has led many young men to their vocations in married or religious life. When he served as diocesan vocations director, he fostered a surge in vocations for the Diocese of Gallup, which had not had a single seminarian in 20 years. To pay for the education of these young men, who belonged to the poorest diocese in the United States, he partnered with New Mexico and Arizona Knights to start the V8 for Vocations project, in which volunteers, including many Knights, fixed up classic V8 muscle cars to raffle off nationwide. The program raises more than $300,000 for vocations every year and has been featured in national news outlets such as USA Today and Fox News. VIDEO: K of C Chaplain Receives Inaugural Blessed Michael McGivney Medal
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Father Keller currently serves as the chaplain of Fray Marcos Council 1783 and Fray Marcos de Niza Assembly 686, both in Gallup.