Waxahachie Hike for Life 2019 Sets New Donation Record,

In October, the Waxahachie Hike for Life raised about $16,700, the highest total ever raised by this Hike. Waxahachie Hike Site Coordinator Hugh Reynolds and Tom Clark, President of Texas Hike for Life, Inc. had agreed last year that all of the funds raised in the 2019 Waxahachie Hike would go to Pro-Life ministries in Ellis County.

Hugh, who serves as the Pro-Life Program Director for Council 8417, invited several interested Knights and their spouses to form a new H4L Organizing Committee last spring. This Committee spent the next four months preparing for the October Hike. We elected officers and formed teams to carry out the various duties needed to make our Hike a success. The following teams were formed to carry out the following tasks:

ØAdministration and Coordination with H4L President

ØOutreach to Parish and Youth Ministries

ØPulpit and Bulletin Announcements, Radio and Print Advertising

ØCoordination with Parish Spanish-Speaking Community

ØRegistration and Collections on Hike Day

ØFinancial Accounting and Reporting

Our efforts paid off spectacularly. In addition to accomplishing all of the above goals, committee members formed their own website fundraising teams and encouraged other parishioners to do so. Having teams competing with each other to raise the most funds added a lot fun and enthusiasm to the project.

Members of the Council, as always, stepped up to run the operations on the day of the Hike. They set up canopies, banners, registration tables, picnic chairs and tables, put up directional street signs, cooked hot dogs, greeted hikers, distributed water along the hike trail, and cleaned up afterwards. We had well over a hundred hikers and visitors, more than any other previous Hike in Waxahachie.

We were honored to have two very special guest speakers. Our U.S. Congressman, Representative Ron Wright, spoke to us about his work to draft and introduce a bill he titled

The Tele-Abortion Prevention Act (H.R. 4935). (Weblink included.) When introducing this legislation, Congressman Wright stated:

“During the practice known as tele-abortion, practitioners conduct abortions over the phone or computer. No doctor should feel comfortable prescribing a life-ending pharmaceutical drug without physically being there to assess the patient. That is why I introduced the Tele-Abortion Prevention Act.”

Our second guest speaker was Ellis County Commissioner Paul Perry, a strong defender of the Sanctity of Life. Commissioner Perry encouraged us all to stay involved in Pro-Life activities at the level of local governments—our cities and counties.

In the end, our Hike made a total of $16,700 through online contributions, donations after Masses and parish events, and collections on the day of the Hike. After expenses, we netted $14,750. Our Waxahachie H4L Committee voted to distribute the proceeds to three very worthy Pro-Life ministries in Ellis County:

1.$13,000 towards the purchase of a new ultrasound machine for FirstLook Pregnancy Center, Ellis County’s only Pro-Life Pregnancy Center. Along with matching funds from the Knights of Columbus “Ultrasound Initiative” program, our Council will be able to provide a new state-of-the-art ultrasound machine to the Center.

2.$1,000 for Project Gabriel at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Waxahachie.

3.$750 for St. Joseph’s Parish Pro-Life Group.

Waxahachie Hike for Life and St. Joseph’s Council 8417 are already planning for an even more successful Pro-Life fundraising campaign I Hike for Life 2020!