Council 10593 Travels Unchartered Territory

Fraternal Year 2021-2022 was a year that will not soon be forgotten. The COVID 19 pandemic disrupted everyone on a personal basis for another year and has led to so much uncertainty. These challenges continue to make our Knights of Columbus activities extremely challenging. Council 10593 is still excelling at meeting these challenges.

Council 10593, based out of Lacoste TX and also supported the surrounding communities of San Antonio, Castroville, Hondo, Lytle, and Blue Skies of Texas West Campus was able to overcome these challenges and provide thousands of hours of volunteer work and other donations to the communities. All STAR Council requirements were completed by the mid-year point, however, it was the challenge of completing the Knights of Columbus Ultrasound Program that has the council beaming with pride, commitment, and a humbling realization that we can all say that because of our efforts, the women visiting the Restore Reproductive Health Center in Hondo TX now have access to state of the art equipment to help guide them to preserving the precious gift they are carrying.

The Restore Reproductive Health Center goal published on their website (restoresrt.org) states the following:

“Restore Reproductive Health joins the movement to make abortion unthinkable in America. In doing so, we will make every effort to meet material, spiritual and health needs of women facing an unexpected pregnancy. Counseling and support for both the mother and her partner, if he is involved, will be available, encouraging them to choose life, whether it is through parenting their child or by making the unselfish choice to allow an adoptive family to raise the child as they wished they could have done. Lay counseling for SRTs (sexual-related traumas) will assist those who have suffered a miscarriage, stillbirth, sexual assault or abuse, post-abortion trauma or crisis pregnancy, provided by trained facilitators who have also survived such a trauma.”

After reviewing the goal of the Restore Reproductive Health Center and the Knights of Columbus Ultrasound Program seemed to be a perfect match. As Catholics, this provided us the opportunity to “put our actions where our words are. ”When we first discussed this opportunity, I was extremely apprehensive as to whether we would complete this effort. I also worried that if we could complete this effort we might not be able to complete it before the facility really needed us to complete it by.

I have been a member of this council since November 2000.I have seen this council do so much for our community and it has never backed down from a challenge. This was going to be our most difficult test. Within a month, any apprehension dissipated because our council, led by our Grand Knight Roland Hernandez, Financial Secretary Richard Lopez, and council members Jerome Iltis, Mark Dzuik, and Alex Tschirhart, proved to be up to the challenge. The committee developed a great plan and many in our council assisted in a variety of ways to complete this effort. The committee developed a close working relationship with Ms. Diane Cosgrove, Executive Director, to ensure our plans were consistent with the Center’s requirements. Our initial goal was to raise enough money to be able to procure the lowest pried model available through the program. In short order we exceeded our initial goal and raised enough to procure the top model listed. We also raised additional funds and turned those over to the Restore Reproductive Health Center to procure other items required to support their goal.

The commitment to our community and to the preservation of life did not end with the initial project. Our council has committed to continuing to support the Restore Reproductive Health Center in the future by planning to hold more fundraisers to support the staff at the Center. The completion of the project was not the completion of this relationship.

Our council takes pride in supporting our communities. This effort was so much more meaningful. We can each take pride that we supported such a noble cause, providing a resource that could protect the most vulnerable above us. As Psalm 127:3 tells us, “Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward.”

What greater gift can our Council members receive than the hope that our efforts may have been able to save a child.