Knights of Columbus drive nets $19,000 for charity

On Feb. 8, the St. Charles Knights of Columbus Council 12497 held an open house to announce and distribute the donations collected by the annual "Tootsie Roll" drive.

Tim Cooper, Grand Knight of the St. Charles council, explained the history of the drive.

"In 1970, Brother Knights in Tinley Park started a program to help those with intellectual disabilities. Their idea was to collect donations in exchange for a Tootsie Roll. The program was such a success it quickly became a staple donation drives by Knights throughout Illinois and then order wide.

Cooper continued, "Of the funds collected, 90 percent are returned to local agencies by the councils who collected them. With the last 10 percent, 1 to 2 percent covers operation costs with the remainder of the funds being donated by our state council on behalf of all councils' statewide to the Illinois Special Olympics. In recent years, the state council has donated over $250,000 annually to the Illinois Special Olympics."

Now each year in one of its most recognizable fundraiser, the Knights of Columbus throughout the U.S. gather on a weekend to collect donations for the mentally handicapped. Specially made Tootsie Rolls bearing the Knights of Columbus logo are handed out at various street corners.

St. Charles Council collected close to $19,000 over the Sept. 20-21, 2008 weekend and at two weekends at the Kane County Flea Market.

Jason Lynch, the chairman of last year's drive, reported that there were a total of 117 volunteers, 80 of which were Brother Knights. Lynch said, "The remainder of our volunteers came from several of the charities we are donating to tonight and also from our Knights of Columbus Ladies Auxiliary and relatives of Knights."

They worked 470 hours collecting donations and raised $18,770, of which $15,672.61 is to be donated back to the local community. The Knights also received a generous donation from Zylstra Harley-Davidson of St. Charles.

Lynch said, "Besides thanking all of our volunteers, I would also like to thank our solicitation sites, their managers, and our local law enforcement agencies: 7-11 East, 7-11 West, Blue Goose Supermarket, Caputo's Market, Dunkin Donuts, Jewel-Osco East, Jewel-Osco West, Jewel-Osco of Elburn, the Kane County Flea Market, Starbucks East, St. Charles Post Office, the South Elgin Police Department, the St. Charles Police Department, and the Kane County Sheriff's Department.

"And of course we would like to thank all those that generously donated their change and dollars," said Lynch

Charities receiving donations for the 2008 drive are: Association for Individual Development in Elgin; Day One Network in Geneva; Fox River Valley Center for Independent Living in Elgin; Giant Steps in Burr Ridge; Marklund in Geneva; Misericordia in Chicago; Special Camps for Special Citizens Inc. in Winfield; Special Olympics Area 2 in St. Charles; St. John Neumann Catholic Church special education program in St. Charles; St. Patrick Catholic Church special education program in St. Charles; and Western DuPage Special Recreation Association in Carol Stream.

The Knights of Columbus is an international Catholic family fraternal service organization with nearly 1.7 million members in over 12,500 local councils. Last year, Knights donated 60 million volunteer hours and $130 million to charitable and benevolent causes, sponsoring projects to benefit their church, councils, communities, families and youth.

The St. Charles Council 12497 serves the communities of St. Charles and South Elgin, and the parishes of St. Patrick Catholic Church and St. John Neumann Catholic Church.

For information, visit www.kofc12497.org or contact Grand Knight Tim Cooper at cooper222@comcast.net.