Supreme Chancellor Donald W. Austin has proclaimed Sunday, March 27, 2011 as the observance of Anniversary Thanksgiving Day. All Pythians, Calantheans, all branches of the Order are directed to assemble jointly in a church to give thanks to God for blessings past, present and future blessing to come. The Supreme Constitution of the Knights of Pythias established the 26th day of March as the Anniversary of our Order and set this date or the Sunday nearest thereto as our Thanksgiving Day.
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Gunn Elected District President
Gunn Elected President of Pythian 5th District
Sir Knight Henry Gunn has been re-elected president of the Alton Fennell, Sr. 5th District Knights of Pythias. Sir Knight Gunn will serve a one-year term as head of the eight-Pythian lodge district. In acknowledging the election, Gunn pledge to preside over all district meetings and perform all duties required of him with justice and impartiality. In the discharge these duties he ask the earnest co-operation of all.
Also elected: Sir John Franklin, Vice President; Sir Ephraim Bryant, Secretary; Sir Aundra Bryant, Treasurer; Sir Fred Hunter, Jr., Chaplain and Sir Eddie Knight, Master At-Arms.
Knights of Pythias donate bikes
More than 20 county children will be riding in style this holiday season thanks to the Knights of Pythias, North Florida Child Development, Inc. and the Gulf Correctional Institution.
The R. A. Driesbach, Sr. Lodge No. 77 of the Knights of Pythias, based in Port St. Joe, this week donated more than 20 bicycles to the annual Bikes for Boys and Girls of Gulf County campaign sponsored by NFCD and GCI.
The bicycles will be refurbished by inmates at GCI and given away to children of need, who have been identified by Gulf Public Schools and other referrals, by North Florida Child Development on Dec. 18 as part of the City of Wewahitchka’s annual Christmas in the Park celebration.
Using bikes and trikes donated by local residents and funds donated to the campaign, the inmates transform used bikes into gleaming “as-new” vehicles for children who might otherwise not enjoy such a bounty beneath the Christmas tree.
“It’s one of our projects we do every year,” said Clarence Monette, Chancellor Commander of the local Knights of Pythias lodge. “It is one of those things we heard about.
“This helps the kids and it helps the environment because these bikes would be tossed away otherwise.”
The project also adheres to the mission statement of the Knights of Pythias, which aims to “improve the heart, exalt the mind, promote virtue and morality, purity and unity” and teaches “principles of friendship, universal brotherhood, protection, patriotism, loyalty to God, home and country.”
As the holiday season heats up, so too are the Knights’ charitable efforts.
The lodge is currently conducting a raffle for a car GPS navigational system. Each ticket is $1 and the proceeds go to the lodge’s Education Scholarship and Building Fund.
Further, the lodge continues to have on sale a CD of Historical African-American Obituaries from North Port St. Joe and surrounding areas. Each CD is $20 and proceeds also benefit the lodge’s Education Scholarship and Building Fund.
Anyone interested in a CD or raffle ticket is encouraged to contact Monette at 899-1479.
Monette added that the lodge will continue to collect bicycles for the next two weeks. Anyone wishing to donate a bike or trike is encouraged to drop them off at Monette’s residence, 313 Avenue B in Port St. Joe.
The Bikes for Boys and Girls of Gulf County fundraiser has a goal of providing refurbished bikes to at least 75 children this year.
If an individual or organization would like to participate, please donate either new or used bikes to your nearest fire station, make donations to North Florida Child Development, Inc, made payable to NFCD, Inc. or purchase raffle tickets for the drawing of a life-size playhouse, which will be given away on Dec. 18.
NFCD will raffle the playhouse constructed by GCI inmate labor, with all proceeds going to the cost of refurbishing bikes and the purchase of tricycles.
The drawing will take place underneath the pavilion at Lake Alice Park after the Christmas parade that begins at 5 p.m. CT.
Once the drawing is held, the winner will be held responsible for moving the playhouse. The winner does not have to be present during the drawing.
Distribution for the bikes will be held onsite and is in conjunction with the City of Wewahitchka, host of the annual evening Christmas Parade and a GFWC Wewahitchka Woman’s Club Inc.’s Lights in the Park.
If your organization would like to participate or obtain a copy of the tax deductible donation form you may contact the organization’s parent volunteer, Jade Hatcher at (850) 532-8181 or [email protected] or Rochelle Priest at (850) 639- 5080, ext. 19 [email protected]
Knights and Bikes
Clarence Monette and Frankie Fennell arrived at the Port St. Joe fire station last Monday with a special delivery.
Inside the bed of a pick-up truck, they carried 25 used tricycles and bicycles.
Some looked good as new; others needed a little work. All were destined for makeovers and a spot under the Christmas tree, gifts for underprivileged Gulf County youth.
Monette and Fennell, members of the Raymond A. Driesbach, Sr. Knights of Pythias Lodge No. 77, spent the past year collecting bicycles for the “Bikes for Boys and Girls of Gulf County” program.
Now in its third year, the program is a collaboration between the North Florida Child Development, Inc. and the Gulf Correctional Institute.
Made possible by donations from civic-minded fellows like the Knights of Pythias, the program utilizes inmate labor to restore old bicycles for kids as Christmas gifts.
Monette, the Knights of Pythias grand chancellor, said the enterprise benefits all involved.
“I think it’s a good program for the boys and girls, to give them a bike they may not have gotten for Christmas. It helps the environment, keeps the bikes out of the dump and gives the prisoner something to do with their time and efforts. All in all, I think it’s a really good project,” said Monette.
The program is the latest in a long list of community service projects for the Knights.
Last week, they delivered Thanksgiving food baskets to needy residents and recently embarked on an effort to collect and compile the obituaries of North Port St. Joe’s African-American residents.
Those interested in donating bicycles or helping with the obituary project may contact Monette at 229-8860 or Frankie Fennell at 227-3560.
Supreme Chancellor Benjamin L. Hooks dead at 85
Benjamin L. Hooks, a champion of minorities and longtime Supreme Chancellor of the Knights of Pythias has died. He was 85. In his last keynote speech to the Knights of Pythias and the Court of Calanthe in Birmingham, Alabama, July of 2009, he urged members to never forget those who are less fortunate.
Book dedication ceremony honors African-American heroes
In dedicating a four-volume reference set of historical African-American obituaries, Clarence Monette answered a question that has long confounded area residents.
“Many people have asked me, ‘Why do you want to do something with dead people?’” said Monette during a March 7 ceremony at New Bethel A.M.E. Church in Port St. Joe.
Monette offered a multi-pronged answer.
For two years, Monette and his fellow members of the R.A. Driesbach Knights of Pythias Lodge No. 77 gathered and compiled over 1,600 funeral programs and obituaries of area African-American residents.
Preserving the lives of the men and women who inhabited the historical African-American community known as “north Port St. Joe” acquired a greater urgency, given recent population declines and changes in land ownership.
“We see north Port St. Joe dwindling and people selling property,” said Monette, the Pythians’ chancellor commander. “We needed to do something to preserve the history of north Port St. Joe.”
The project also seemed a natural fit for the Knights of Pythias, an organization founded in 1864 to relieve suffering and promote friendship among men.
Abraham Lincoln urged the passing of a congressional act to establish the organization in an attempt to unite a country still divided after the Civil War.
Originally open exclusively to white men, the club expanded to include African-American members in 1880, after a lawsuit settled by the Supreme Court.
Monette, a retired media specialist, had been fascinated by the history contained in obituaries since serving as a church usher in junior high.
The March 7 ceremony allowed him to thank the many community members who helped with the project and also recognize the heroism of the men and women profiled in the four-volume set.
Noting that African-Americans enjoyed success in “every field you can possibly imagine,” Monette singled out some for special praise.
Though most residents have heard of Congressional Medal of Honor recipient Clifford Sims’ heroic self-sacrifice in Vietnam, the stories of E.L. Fleming, R.C. Larry and Norris Langston are not as familiar.
Fleming, a former Gulf County bus driver, rescued a child from a house fire in 1955 and Larry lost an arm while freeing a fellow mill worker from a paper machine.
Langston died at age 36 from lung complications sustained while rescuing a man rendered unconscious by fumes from a broken paper mill chlorine line.
“This is a history that would be lost without some sort of record being kept somewhere,” said Monette. “This is something we can be proud of.”
At Monette’s request, Bay County educator Janice Lucas shared the history of her great-great grandmother, Lucy Crowell, who graces the book’s cover.
Born in 1860, Crowell was one of 19 children who also bore 19 children. She died in 1972, at age 112.
In her lifetime, Crowell lived through some of the most formative epochs in U.S. history – slavery, reconstruction, two world wars, Jim Crow and Vietnam.
She saw the inaugurations of 37 presidents – from James Buchanan to Richard Nixon.
Lucas said she kept a photo of Crowell in her office to remind her on whose shoulders she stands.
“We may say slavery happened so many hundreds of years ago, but for us, it’s just generations,” said Lucas. “Many of us were raised on the wit and wisdom of slaves.”
Pastor Sandra Clark dedicated the volumes to the “holy ministry of service and worship,” and the Pythians distributed the sets, complete with index and DVD, to representatives of local churches, the library and St. Joseph Bay Historical Society.
The ceremony also included musical performances by Elitha Gant Harrison, Herbert Beard and Sally Jenkins.
Monette said the Pythians will continue to gather obituaries and update the index annually. Supplemental loose-leaf copies of the funeral programs will be given to all churches.
After dedicating two years of his retirement to the obituary project, Monette deserved a little recognition himself.
Minnie Likely rose from the audience to lead attendees in a standing ovation.
Monette offered humble thanks.
“It was a joy,” he said. “It was a joy to do this.”