The Knights of Columbus Good Shepherd Council #5573 in Plainfield has been recognized with the Star Council Award, the international organization’s highest honor for local councils.
The award acknowledges excellence in membership growth, promotion of insurance benefits, support for Catholic faith formation programs, and service-based volunteer efforts.
Council members participated in the March for Life, prayed the Rosary to end abortion, and supported the Knights’ Ultrasound Initiative, which provides expectant mothers with life-affirming resources, according to a news release from St. Mary Immaculate Parish in Plainfield.
The council also continued its charitable outreach through the annual Intellectual Disabilities (Tootsie Roll) Drive.
“Through your tireless work, your faith in action, and your commitment to our shared mission, we have been restored to the honor of Star Council,” Past Grand Knight Thomas Krepelka told members, according to the release. “This is not just a title – it is a testament to our unity, our charity, our strength as Catholic men devoted to service and truth.”
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Through their enduring work in the community, over the past year, the Knights of Columbus Good Shepherd Council #5573 in Plainfield raised more than $75,000 for local charities.
For example, the Knights raised $37,894 during their Lenten Fish Fries, $7,839 for people with intellectual disabilities through the annual Tootsie Roll I.D. drive, $5,465 for parish ministries through their tamale fest, and $1,800 for parish priests, according to the Diocese of Joliet.
Additionally, the Knights of Columbus not only raise money for those in the community, but its members also spend countless hours distributing communion to the home bound and visiting the sick in hospitals and retirement homes, according to the release.
Each year, Council #5573 joins forces with parishioners from St. Mary Immaculate parish in Plainfield to create homemade “Keep Christ in Christmas” decorations and, as a group, use these to decorate our Community Tree in Brookfield Zoo, according to the diocese.
“It allows the Knights of Columbus and the community to come together to share their faith, as well as help raise money to take care of the animals of Brookfield Zoo,” according to the release.
“This is not just a title – it is a testament to our unity, our charity, our strength as Catholic men devoted to service and truth,” Past Grand Knight Thomas Krepelka told the Council regarding the award. “Let us never forget our guiding principles: Charity. Unity. Fraternity. Patriotism. These are not just words on a banner – they are the soul of who we are.”
Membership in the Knights of Columbus is open to men age 18 and older who are practicing Catholics in union with the Holy See.
For information on joining the council, contact Membership Director Thomas Krepelka at 708-218-5733 or tpkrepelka@amerline.com.
Founded in 1882, the Knights of Columbus is a global Catholic fraternal organization with more than 2 million members in 16,000 parish-based councils. More information is available at kofc.org.