Columbian Award

Pictured to the left is our Past Grand Knight, Chris DeClue, holding the 2016-2017 Columbian Award plaque recently received by the Bethalto Council. The council continues to expand its service programs, having also received this award many times in the past. The award requires that the council provide at least four programs in each of six areas, although, quite frankly, many additional activities have gone unreported. The following comments were provided on the previous award by Gerry Mattix-Wand, an active council member.

"The Columbian award is for conducting programming in the areas of: Church, Family, Youth, Community, Life, and Council. A council must complete at least 4 activities in each area. There are a few "super programs" that if conducted will count as all four activities in a category. Sponsoring a Squires Circle is such a "super program" that we do. However, we also do many other youth programs such as helping our youth group, conducting a spelling bee, activities in the school, etc. Our council has always been active in programming in these areas for as long as I have been a member and I'm sure it has always been true." Mattix-Wand added, "As another note, the Columbian Award is one of the qualifiers for Star Council which we were very close to qualifying for last year through the tremendous efforts of our Grand Knight. He has been an outstanding leader and has built a foundation that we will continue to build on as we move forward."