For the City Times
Submitted by Bob Rogers, KC Council 1170

STEVENS POINT — The Knights of Columbus Council 1170 of Stevens Point recently donated more than $4,200 in total to special education programs in six area schools: Spash, Pacelli, PJ Jacobs, Ben Franklin, Jefferson, and Bannach.

The money comes from an annual donation campaign usually conducted in the community around April. The campaign is known as the Campaign for People with Intellectual Disabilities. Perhaps you have seen the KCs collecting donations at area stores and churches and offering Tootsie Rolls as a thank you for a donation.

Please be aware that we have no official tie to Tootsie Roll or their manufacturer. So, it is a big thank you to friends and neighbors who support this program and it is through your donations that we are able to help children in our community with intellectual disabilities.

“The special education team [at Jefferson Elementary] is so grateful for this donation,” said Melissa Steward, Special Education Teacher at Jefferson Elementary School. “We as a team would like to put this donation to good use. Some current needs are time timers for our classrooms, fidgets, adapted shoelaces, capital letter magnets for our reading groups, number magnets, and place value manipulatives. Other ideas are to help fund the startup cost to start a hospitality cart run by students with special needs and to help fund a special education family activity night for families with children with special needs.”

Similar thoughts of appreciation were echoed by all recipients.

Statewide the 2018 campaign raised $726,736. Over the past five years the Stevens Point KC Council 1170 has distributed over $20,000 to area schools. The program originally began in 1970 with three Brother Knights from a Council in the Chicago area.

Now many states and provinces in Canada participate in the program. Some of the money raised goes to supporting the Special Olympics.