Michigan Tech Knights of Columbus Council receives national award

When Michigan Tech student  and Knight of Columbus Jack Hoffman got a call from the Knights of Columbus headquarters telling him that they were going to send a photographer to their council’s watch party of their national (collegiate) awards ceremony, he wasn’t sure what to make of it.

“The award ceremony takes place every September at the Knights headquarters in New Haven Connecticut,” explained Hoffman. “Because of the pandemic, we were not able to attend so we decided to set up a watch party under a tent outside of St. Als.”

As the award ceremony unfolded, the presence of the roaming photographer began to make sense.

“They were reading off the accomplishments of the first and second runner ups and showing photos of their work,” recalled Hoffman. “Then we began to notice that the photos were of us and some of projects we had worked on here. We were like, ‘That’s us!' It was then announced that our council had been awarded the Outstanding College Council award.”

To say the least, all those present were flabbergasted, and it was all caught on film for an upcoming edition of the Knights national publication Columbia magazine.

Not only was this the MTU Knights first year of applying (for award), it was their first year of existence as a council.

“We started in March of 2019 with around 12 men,” said Jay Czerniak who served as the council’s first Grand Knight. “I was the one who filled out the application documenting what we had done for that first year.”

Czerniak noted that it was an exhausting project  that took him at least 14 hours.

“They wanted to know about  every event we did, how many Knights attended, money raised and many other details,” he said, “However, in the end, it was well worth it.”

Father Dustin Larson served as the council’s first chaplain. Now serving as a chaplain at  Northern Michigan University, he was able to join the watch party via Zoom.

“I had the best of both worlds,”  he said. “I was able to watch the event on one screen and the reaction from the St. Al guys on the other.”

Projects of this first year council included  chopping wood for Little Brothers Friends of the Elderly based in Hancock. The Knights collected receipts outside of the local Econo Foods. They hosted a movie night on campus, organized a novena for life in January and cooked up around 90 pounds of wings during Tech’s annual  construction of their ice chapel for the university’s  Winter Carnival in February.

"In terms of service, the Michigan Tech council had no equal. They held creative, successful, and engaging programs which made a clear impact on their campus community and the surrounding community in Houghton,” said David St.  Hilaire, national  growth director for the Knights college councils. 

“In a time when college students are falling away from the faith in record numbers, and also facing hostility towards the faith on campus, the Knights at Michigan Tech presented a stark contrast. Instead of falling away, they stepped into the breach, and built a strong fraternity of Catholic men, who are striving in the faith, serving others, and clearly having a great time while they do it.”

Czerniak told the U.P Catholic, “When you look through the list of past (collegiate) winners, you will see some big name schools with a lot of history and money. We were going up against schools like Notre Dame, Benedictine and Texas A&M which is like the Holy Grail of campus ministry on a non-Catholic campus. Then, there is us, MTU, in the middle of nowhere now being honored.”

Father Larson noted that the award is really an affirmation to several things including the growth of the council’s membership. They started with around 20 men and doubled it a year later.

“That’s unprecedented,” he said. “While the idea to start a council had been bounced around before at Tech, it never seemed to take root. It seemed now like the Holy Spirit was at work here to have the right men at the right time started less than two years ago.”

St. Hilare concurred as he related,  “In the two short years of their existence they have grown their membership to nearly 50 members, which incredibly enough, is over one percent  of the total campus population. Nearly every male student at St. Albert’s student parish is a member of the Knights of Columbus.

Father Larson added that he was impressed with the fact that as the council grew so did the participation on various projects.

“It was not just the leaders who were doing all the work. We had multiple people who stepped up in different ways to help the council function,” he said.  “That is how you are going to keep going.

Hoffman, who was recently elected this year’s Grand Knight, said that recruitment is underway for hopefully another great year.

“We are hoping to continuing growing our council and to continue making better,  virtuous men for our community and our Church,” he said.  “It should be another great year.”