"Helping Hands" - One Door Closes and Another Opens at Council 6065 in Plano

The coronavirus pandemic has catapulted us all into a new world order of circumstances that were inconceivable just a few months ago. Healthy people are ill, secure jobs are lost and, for many, the ability to provide even the most basic needs of life has become a herculean task. Brothers who worked at food banks as volunteers or who donated food now sometimes arrives at the same Food bank as recipients of aid.

Our Council has been fortunate enough to have the resources to budget a small amount annually ($750) for Brothers in need. We call this program "Helping Hands". In a Council of over 390 members this is not a huge amount. In mid-March when the magnitude of the corona virus and its potential impact became clear, we knew that we would have more needs than our humble amount could support. At the same time, fundraising had pretty much ground to a halt (our 2nd of 3 planned Fish Fry's was cancelled a few days before the event, etc.). So, we were faced with a two pronged challenge - where to get more funds and how to implement a fair and equitable program to help Brothers in need. And, equally important, how to do both of these quickly!

Well, as happens many times, the Lord closes one door and opens another. Right about then, we got word that the Texas State Convention scheduled for April was cancelled. We had budgeted $1,100 for Delegate expenses as well as $300 for an ad in the Convention program. That thought caused us to comb other areas of our budget that contained expenses that would not be incurred or things that could be deferred to the next fraternal year. In all, including the original $750 that was budgeted we came up with a revised budget of $4,150. So, half the problem was solved.

Next, we had to design a program that was easy, quick, fair and confidential. We did so on March 23rd, conducted a virtual meeting with our Trustees on March 26th, took an electronic vote of our Council to re-allocate the funds by 3/30 and were mailing checks for grants to the recipients by April 7th. The only requirements for the program were that the applicant be a member of Council 6065 in good standing and that the hardship was caused by the coronavirus. Our Deputy Grand Knight did all of the translations of the communications to Spanish and had several contacts with Hispanic Brothers to make sure everyone got the message and understood the program. Other than the recipients, only 4 Council officers who administered the program knew exactly who the applicants were.

The result? Six Brothers and one widow received a total of $3,420 for an average grant of about $490 each. The widow was a special set of circumstances. Her deceased husband had applied for membership, been voted into the Council but had not yet gone through his exemplification before he tragically fell ill and passed away leaving a widow and 3 children. So yes, it's important that compassion sometimes triumphs over rules and it did in this case.

Council 6065 is proud of all of the many good works that we do for others locally, nationally and even internationally. We’re also are proud of being named “Council of the Year” in the Dallas Diocese last year. But there is something extra special about taking the initiative and finding the means to help our own Brothers in their time of need!