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Gladstone KofC recognized at global awards

Beat out 17,000 others for Life Award

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GLADSTONE -- At the 144th-annual Supreme Convention for the international nonprofit Knights of Columbus, the Gladstone council -- which also works collaboratively with the councils fron Bark River and Escanaba -- was recognized with an award for their work with Pregnancy Services of Delta County.

The Knights of Columbus are purportedly the largest Catholic service organization in the world. The founder -- Michael Joseph McGivney, a priest based in Connecticut -- started the charity in 1882 to be a mutual aid society in which members called Knights would provide support for the families left behind when one of their number died. The goal was to help poor, immigrant Catholics who often experienced ruin and separation when the patriarch died.

“At the time, Christopher Columbus was widely lionized in American culture, despite being a Catholic, and Father McGivney proposed him as a model for these first Knights who sought to hold on to their Catholic faith and identity in the New World,” states kofc.org

Today, instead of just providing a support system for each other, the Knights of Columbus -- with over two million members -- also serve their greater communities. The organization’s mission is to “empower Catholic men to live their faith and serve their family, parish, community and country.” Their principles are “charity, unity, fraternity and patriotism.”

In August, the annual convention and awards ceremony in Denver, Colorado “welcomed more than 2,100 Knights and their families, members of the Catholic hierarchy and special guests from 13 countries,” reported the KofC. “The annual awards ceremony recognizes individual Knights, councils, assemblies and jurisdictions throughout the world who have faithfully carried out the mission … These honorees exemplify how Knights live their faith in service to their family, parish, community and country through charitable outreach, fraternal leadership, membership growth and retention, and insurance sales and service.”

At the convention, awards were presented to councils who had shown tremendous accomplishments in four areas: faith, family, community and life.

Out of over 17,000 Knights of Columbus councils around the globe, it was the group from Gladstone that earned the Life Award. They were the only American council to win; it was a Canadian group that in the Community category, one from the Philippines to be honored for Family; and a council from Ukraine that earned the Faith award.

The Gladstone chapter of the Knights of Columbus -- officially called Brother Felix Council 6667, named after a Holy Name teacher who helped them get started -- was organized in 1975. Organizations they support in the local area include Pregnancy Services of Delta County, Bay Cliff Health Camp, Special Olympics Michigan Area 1, Gladstone Public Library, the Gladstone Senior Center, St. Vincent de Paul, All Saints Catholics Church, Pathways and others, said Mike Mineau, Grand Knight for 6667.

The council’s connection with Pregnancy Services of Delta County began in 2022, but work with pregnancy centers like it is one mission that Knights everywhere support.

In 2022, when the center was moving to a new home in the former U.P. State Credit Union building, the Brother Felix Council stepped in to help -- first in small ways, like helping with the move, then much larger ones.

After settling in, it later became time for Pregnancy Services to remodel the building to be better suited for their needs, instead of a bank’s.

“There’s a guy in our council, Brent Chaillier, who’s a very talented engineer. …He was volunteering his time, sat down with the center and kind of came up with a design,” Mineau explained. “And as we were going through that process, we’re like, ‘why don’t we just help them and do the work? That way, we could save them a bunch of money.'”

The council was fortunate to have capable and willing members with a number of skillsets, all of whom agreed to donate their time. There was Tim Beauchamp, contractor-builder; Rob Morrow, who does plumbing and HVAC work; electrician Rob Levielle; Brad Chaillier, retired millwright with experience in project and jobsite management and over 20 more volunteers.

Pregnancy Services of Delta County Executive Director Jamie Fisher “offered valuable insight on what changes to the building were needed and how the renovation could optimize the day-to-day operations at the center,” read a report by Mineau.

It’s estimated that the Knights from Gladstone saved Pregnancy Services about $90,000 in labor costs by completing the renovation work themselves.

The move had come at a timely point, Mineau said — the center’s previous home wasn’t zoned to allow for a certain new instrument.

An ultrasound machine is a big and expensive buy, but the Knights of Columbus as a whole organization has suppliers that other councils have worked with to obtain ultrasound machines for their respective pregnancy centers.

“To help the center fund an ultrasound, we teamed up with Escanaba council and the Bark River council, and a couple of local churches, and we came up with the funding and purchased the ultrasound over at the center,” Mineau said.

The machine was dedicated and installed in early 2024. Since then, the Knights continue to raise money for Pregnancy Services, including through coordinating parking at the U.P. State Fair.

When one of the members from Gladstone suggested they write down their accomplishments and share them with the brotherhood as a whole, Mineau put together a 37-page document of photos, charts and explanations describing the work of Brother Felix Council 6667 over the last few years.

The Knights of Columbus for the State of Michigan chose the council and their projects to be honored with the Family Award in May 2026.

That achievement progressed the Gladstone group and Mineau’s document to the fraternity’s worldwide scale. The Knights of Columbus declared that council 6667 was the winner of the Life Award, which was presented in August 2026. Mineau and his wife were flown out to Denver to accept the prize on behalf of the Gladstone council.

The international service organization praised its Brother Felix Council thusly:

“Thanks to council members' expertise, labor, and tireless efforts, the former credit union building was transformed into a sanctuary of hope and support for women and families in need. Knights drafted the plans, acquired the necessary permits, secured building materials, and contributed over 1,000 hours of work, saving the center nearly $90,000 in labor costs. These savings have allowed the center to focus its resources on the life-saving services it provides to its clients. Throughout the renovation, the council also scheduled inspections from building, electrical, and plumbing officials to ensure full compliance with local and state standards. This project continued the council's support of the center -- in 2023 they worked with another council to fund their ultrasound machine. Since the machine's installation in January 2024, the center has performed 88 ultrasounds, of which 82 mothers have chosen life for their baby.”

That number was based on the 2025 report. By now, early October 2026, Pregnancy Services of Delta County has performed over 130 ultrasounds, said Executive Director Fisher.

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