Each year the Grand Knight gets to select a Young Woman & Young Man of the Year. I feel privileged to present these awards to two outstanding individuals. They are selected based on their academic excellence, extracurricular activities, & civic, religious, and school related involvement. Both of these individuals excelled in all areas.
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Young Woman of the Year |
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vvv Claire Bayles vvv
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Our Young Woman of the Year is an excellent student who has performed well in all of her Honors and Advanced Placement(AP) classes in high school. She currently maintains a 3.9 grade point average while participating in sports and working at the same time. She is a member of the National Honor Society, where she welcomes the opportunities that society brings as far as tutoring middle school children.
She is involved in the Keep Loudoun Beautiful Club at school. She is an active member of her parish and this past November she served as her sister's confirmation sponsor. She is active in the council's Charity of the Month where in the winter she helped pack scarves and create care packages for over 2500 |
orphans who attend school and have no family during the holidays. She is also active at the council's Friday night dinners, where she assists with taking orders or busing tables. She has also helped at the council Sunday breakfasts in the past.
She is an outstanding student athlete as member of her high school varsity softball team and was the captain of her JV volleyball team, as well as her year round Club Volleyball Travel Team. She also has served as a volleyball coach for the local middle school select team this past fall. This volunteer activity took a considerable amount of her free time, but she did it energetically and without complaint.
Our Young Woman of the Year is an active participant of the council's Helping Hands Charity of the Month. She is also an outstanding athlete at her high school where she excels at both softball and volleyball, as well as a youth league volleyball coach. She is a member of the Keep Loudoun Beautiful club at her high school. With her parents she is a regular participant at Council dinners and assists wherever needed. She also works part time when not busy with all her activities to raise money for her college education. |
It is with great honor that we award Claire Bayles as the Young Woman of the Year.
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Young Man of the Year |
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vvv Hutton Jackson vvv
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Our Young Man of the Year is a straight A student at his Catholic High School. He attends Seton School in Manassas and has consistently made honor roll and received 4 individual academic awards in the 8th grade. He often takes time to tutor his younger siblings.
This young man is a dedicated altar server at his family's parish and each quarter he serves as an altar server at the Basilica in Washington, DC. He donated $250 that he was saving to purchase a gaming system, to the parish's Baptismal Font. He has volunteered at several Council events, including KOVAR and the parish picnic setup. He is a certified babysitter, and is CPR certified. |
This young man is a member of the Leadership Training Program sponsored by legionnaire priests and he participates in charitable events associated with them; namely: homeless soup kitchen and Halloween for the Hungry.
Recently he completed a mission to El Salvador that ministered to two impoverished villages. The purpose of the mission was to visit the villages and strengthen their common Catholic faith. He had helped to collect sporting equipment which was brought to El Salvador and then taught the kids how to play soccer and lacrosse. This young man gave a speech to over 50 village children on the importance of going to mass and the Eucharist.
He is a member of the Varsity Lacrosse team at his high school and plays lacrosse year round. He is also a Certified Soccer referee. Last year he was a member of the local community swim team.
He is very active with his father in Knights of Columbus activities and has assisted with KOVAR and setup for the parish picnic. He and his father traveled to El Salvador together to complete a mission to 2 impoverished villages and spread the Catholic Faith. His family attends all his sporting events and encourages him to excel in all that he does. He is the oldest of 5 children and serves as a role model for his siblings. He often leads the family in prayer time especially during Sunday night rosary sessions.
Our Young Man of the Year is an outstanding athlete, excellent student, and contributor to the life and welfare of our Council, the community, and even two impoverished villages in El Salvador. He is a member of his high school's Varsity Lacrosse team. He is a dedicated altar boy at the families' parish and each quarter serves as an altar boy at the Basilica in Washington, D.C. He has volunteered his time to support several Council events, especially KOVAR. He is also a member of the Leadership Training Program sponsored by legionnaire priests and he participates in charitable events associated with the group. |
It is with great honor that we award Hutton Jackson as the Young Man of the Year.
The Grand Knight also gets to honor a Knight & Family of the Year. The Knight & Family of the Year are selected based on their service to their church, family, community, & the council. These are individuals who are the ones that you will see at almost every event that the Council hosts, whether enjoying the event or working to help support it.
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Family of the Year |
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vvv Steve, Laura, & Steven Schultz vvv
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Our Family of the Year helped support the Special Olympics “The Battle of the Golden Helmet” Softball Tournament last fall. This Knight dressed up in full umpire wear and with another professional umpire called the game for the athletes. All of the athletes appreciated the professionalism he brought to the game. His son helped cook the hamburgers and hot dogs for the athletes and their families.
This family attends weekly mass at one of the parishes that the Council supports. They also help support the parish picnic each year by cooking hamburgers and hot dogs and serving them to the parishioners.
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This husband and wife team is the lead cooks on one of our catering teams. They also attend every Friday Night Dinner and on most Fridays you will see this couple helping out whether it is taking orders, bartending, or cleaning dishes afterwards. This Knight orders all the food for all our catering and council events. He also sets up the bar for each event. When our previous Rental Agent left suddenly, he stepped in and temporarily acted as our Rental Agent to work with clients that wished to have an event at our facility. This couple also helps support our KOVAR collection drive each year.
This Family is the backbone of our Council Home. Their support of the Council is immeasurable. They are bringing a lot of fraternalism to our facility and have made people excited about coming out for a meal with their Brother Knights. Of all our Council families, this couple has spent the most time and effort in keeping our Council Home up and running. Whether it is taking inventory, ordering supplies or food, running an event, or cooking dinner, this couple does it all. Without their support I couldn’t imagine our events running as smoothly as they did this year. |
It is with great honor that we award Steve, Laura, & Steven Schultz as the Family of the Year.
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Knight of the Year |
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vvv David Uhl vvv
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Our Knight of the Year always helps the Council with our ushering duties when we usher for the Christmas Eve and Easter Vigil masses. This Knight is also a great help at the parish picnic where the Council cooks hamburgers and hot dogs for the parishioners.
This Knight has been a great family man. After his mom passed away he helped out his father whenever help was needed. He would constantly go visit his father up in Pennsylvania to spend time with him and help with projects around the house. He also helps his mother-in-law as well as his brother-in-law and is consistently helping them out whenever they need assistance. His family has described this Knight as having a “Heart of Gold”.
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This Knight helps his wife each year at a fundraiser for Good Shepherd Alliance. Each year her church holds a fundraiser that consists of various auctions. This Knight is there organizing the auction items, setting up the tables, and checking the auction items out to people that won the prizes. Last October this event raised $7,700 for Good Shepherd Alliance, which provides emergency housing, job training, and assistance to the county’s homeless population.
He has been a member of our Council and the Knights for the past 15 years. He is a regular on one of our Bingo teams. In fact this year he has been coming out most Tuesdays to help the other teams with Bingo as our need for volunteers has increased. His presence has been a lifesaver when the weekly Bingo team was short staffed. This Knight is also a great help with cleaning up and helping with dishes after our Monthly Sunday Breakfasts.
He and his wife are at our Council Home each Friday enjoying our Friday Night Dinners with family members or friends. This couple is also a huge supporter of our 2 main fundraisers that we have each year: the Redskins Ticket Raffle and Super Bowl Raffle. They always ask for more tickets and sell them to their family and friends. This year they sold $300 worth of tickets for the Super Bowl Raffle.
This Brother Knight is one of those great “behind the scenes” Knights. Maybe he is not the most outspoken member, but his deeds and actions have been a great assist to this Council. Whether it’s helping with Bingo, our Monthly Sunday Breakfast, or Friday Night Dinners, he is always there to lend a hand when needed. His help with ushering has helped us in our support to one of our parishes. |
It is with great honor that we award David Uhl as the Knight of the Year.
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