St. Charles Knights of Columbus Make ‘Pies by the Guys’
January 16, 2020
ST. CHARLES—Knights of Columbus Council 12497 of St. Charles held its 2019 annual Thanksgiving “Pies by the Guys” event Nov. 1 and 2.
This year two Rockford Diocese councils, Sugar Grove Council 16660, Aurora Council 14795 and the St. Charles Ladies Auxiliary were joined by neighboring Chicago Archdiocese Addison Council 650 and Tinley Park Council 4698 for the pie making event.
The volunteers assembled over 2,300 “ready to bake” apple pies.
The group of 201 Knights, plus 29 children and other family members logged more than 650 volunteer hours. They helped with planning, sales, box assembly, pie making, lunch preparation, cleanup, storage and distribution of the pies.
Beginning Nov. 1 a team of Knights received the materials and set up the equipment in St. Patrick Parish’s Dempsey Hall and began box assembly.
Early Nov. 2, a contingent of 53 Knights and others began pie production. A last minute decision was made to produce an additional 200 pies.
When the pies were done, lunch was served and cleanup finished ahead of 4 p.m. Mass.
Over 400 apple pies were donated to local fire and police department first responders, the St. Vincent de Paul Society, local parish food pantries and an innercity Thanksgiving food basket program.
Since beginning this Thanksgiving event in 2000, the Knights and their helpers have assembled, sold and contributed 36,000 pies, with the number of donated pies increasing yearly.
Council 12497 is celebrating its 20th year in service to the St. Patrick and St. John Neumann parishes in St. Charles and the surrounding community.
Jim Gebhardt of the Knights said they appreciated all those who assisted in the event as well as those who donated pies to various organizations.