Transcription of Vaughn Wadelius Interview about Knights of Columbus

[Transcript of Vaughn Wadelius interview by Sam Waller Museum staff, edited for clarity]

DY:         So, the date is July 10^th, 2015, and we are at the Sam Waller Museum. I am Dylan Young, and I am interviewing Vaughn Wadelius. And he’s going to talk about the Knights of Columbus. If I knew nothing about your organization, how would you explain it to me?

VW:       I guess, the easiest explanation is that it is not a service club. It’s a fraternal organization, which means that the objectives of the organization, although some of them tend to be like service clubs, are focused on a group of men who are part of the Roman Catholic Parish, in our locale. And in this case, of course, it’s The Pas. It has, as an organizational structure, it has officers, and kind of like directors, much like any other service club or official organization. But, in addition to that, it has a sort of semi-secretive component, in that, only bonafide members can attend meetings, and participate in the activities of the organization, unless, of course, they are public activities like pancake breakfasts, or things like that.

DY:         So it’s much less, I don’t want to say easy-going, but…

VW:       It’s a little more laid-back than a service club, for example, we encourage members to attend the monthly meetings, we have ten of those a year. There’s no penalty if you’re unable to attend, and indeed, some of our members, who have been long-standing members for many decades, don’t even live in The Pas anymore.

DY:         How long have you been a member?

VW:       Actually, I’m kind of a latecomer, in the sense I joined in 1996. Before that, I was involved in another service club that kept me very, very busy. Then, my professional organization took me away from The Pas for a while, and I kind of got out of the service club orientation. But, eventually, in 1996, I was approached to consider joining the Knights, and it kind of fit in with where I was, heading towards retirement, and also wanting to become a little more involved with the men of the community, that I was attending church with.

DY:        Okay. How regularly do you get new members?

VW:       We’re always looking for new members, and indeed, when I joined in 1996, there was about six of us who joined at the same time. And we’ve had anywhere from one to five members on and off over the years join on an annual basis. Of course, many of our members are quite elderly, and so we’re losing one or two or three a year as they pass on. So we’re always looking for new members. It’s more difficult, I think, like other service clubs, to get new members nowadays.

DY:         The ones that I’ve interviewed, they said that they’re always looking for them. Not desperately, but…

VW:       Well, we certainly are, too, and we approach people that we think would make good members, from time to time, and sometimes they say yes, but often they’re very busy. Especially, if they’re younger, they’re very busy with their families. Families take a lot of time nowadays with all the associated activities that families are involved in, and sports, and so on.

DY:         What do you like most about your organization?

VW:       Well, one of the main things I like about it is that it’s a local organization, while it is international, and national, and provincial, in some of its activities, most of our involvement is within The Pas, or area of The Pas. And it’s an opportunity to work with, on these projects, to work with people from the community that you might not, in your workplace, for example, be involved with. So, it’s an opportunity to work with people that you might normally see on a Sunday, and that’s about it.

DY:         Could you talk about some of the projects or programs you’ve participated in or that you know of?

VW:       Well, there’s a couple that I’ve been heavily involved in over the years. During the Trapper’s Festival, we put on pancake breakfasts, it was an idea I initiated soon after I was involved with the Knights, we’ve kept it up and it involves organizing up to sixty people for three days to make and serve pancakes during Trapper’s Festival. And it’s a social activity for the community too. So that’s one good thing. We have been involved in various cleanup projects over the years, we donate, we have certain donations. Our primary donation area is our parish, and the church, but other things we donate are wheelchairs, on an international basis, visiting the sick. Several years ago, we started a project in the middle school called “the rock paper scissors challenge”, and that’s an opportunity for all the students to get involved in a challenge to see who would be the top rock paper scissors person in the school. And we give trophies and financial awards to the top winners of that category. Seems to be something students look forward to doing, because everybody can participate, you don’t have to be athletically inclined, or have a high IQ, you just participate, and it gives you an equal chance.

DY:         Are the Knights of Columbus in Canada and the Knights of Columbus in the US the same?

VW:       We all operate under an international group called the Supreme Office, which is centered in the United States, but there are national sub-groups, Canada of course, and then we have various provincial groups under that. There’s Knights of Columbus in Ukraine, in the Philippines, in Mexico, and other countries around the world. So it’s sort of an international body as well.

DY:         How is the Knights of Columbus in Canada different from the ones in the other countries?

VW:       Well, our focus is on local activities. So, while we do make international donations, or provide assistance, we did a lot of medical assistance to the Ukraine in the last couple of years, or in some countries where there’s natural disasters, we’ve contributed to the support of those. The wheelchair thing is a big international contribution. Boxcar loads of wheelchairs are sent down to Caribbean countries, or South America, to help there. But, while we follow the same general principles of organization, and we have similar officers, and that sort of thing, each group is pretty discrete, focusing on our own interests, as a national body, or as a provincial body as well.

DY:         Okay. What are the best parts, and the most frustrating parts, if there are any, of being a member?

VW:       Well, the best parts are getting a chance to work with local guys, ’cause we’re all men, of course, it’s restricted to men-only. We do work in cooperation with the ladies of the parish, and spouses, on various occasions, but, as a men’s group, it’s an opportunity to meet and mingle with people that you might not normally spend any time with. And because we’re of the same faith, we have similar interests. So, that’s a good thing. The negative side? Well, in the years of the last several years, the diminishing membership makes it more difficult sometimes to do projects. Attracting new members is one of the big frustrations. And while we sometimes are successful, it’s still difficult to get new members, like other organizations have found.

DY:         Is there a general reaction that someone has, if they learn you are a member?

VW:       I haven’t run across any reaction other than curiosity, perhaps. Our community work is not always publicized to the degree that maybe we should, so unless we make an effort to put in a press release, or point out that we’re donating to all the food banks in The Pas, or providing financial assistance to repair a cathedral roof, or something like that, it doesn’t get noticed, without-outside of our church community. We usually get good publicity within our church community.

DY:         So, you’re saying you’re not as well-known as Rotary, or Kinsmen?

VW:       Yeah, because we’re not a service club, we’re not in the face of the public as often.

DY:         Okay. Do you have a story you can share that has to do with the Knights?

VW:       Yeah, I do. Our council was started in the late twenties, and at that time it had about seventy-five founding members, and one of them was my grandfather. And because of that, I’ve always had an interest in joining the Knights. And I did consider it at one time in the sixties, but was attracted to a service club at the time, because a lot of my colleagues in my work profession were members of this service club, and so I decided to join them. But, I eventually became a Knight, and one of the reasons is because I knew my grandfather had been a founding member here.

DY:         How would you personally describe the Knights?

VW:       I guess, a group of like-minded men who want to provide service to their local community, their local parish, particularly. The Knights was founded, originally, to help widows and orphans of the community, so, that’s one of our goals for the core social services provides much of what wasn’t available in the twenties.

DY:         What would be your group’s greatest accomplishment? I mean, any level of the organization: internationally, nationally, and locally.

VW:       Oh gosh. For several decades, our council ran bingos at the Guy Hall and the finances that were available because of that went, a lot of it went to education in the community, religious instructions to students at the time was Sacred Heart School, and later to students in the public school system, who participated. That was a major thing. Providing support to the rebuilding of the Riverside Cemetery was another major project that was accomplished. A lot of people don’t know about it, but it cost many tens of thousands of dollars to rebuild that cemetery, and make it available. Our continuing work with the Trapper’s Festival Pancake Breakfast is another ongoing thing. Manitoba and international, I’m less able to comment on that, I do read our international publication. We get a news magazine that comes out on a regular basis. Most councils do a lot of these little projects like I’m talking about. That’s their focus.

DY:         Do you think that any of your organization’s actions have had negative results in communities?

VW:       I can’t think of any. I’ve lived here all my life, and I’ve never been aware of any negative perceptions of our council, or for any service club, for that matter. Because we’re all interested in improving a lot of other people in the community, so that’s only a good thing.

DY:         In terms of the last few decades, would you say that your organization is becoming more active, or less active?

VW:       I think we’ve been fairly steady in the things that we do. As our membership gets older, and many of them are in their eighties now, so there’s a limit to what physical activities many of our members can do. But the things that we do, we’ve done for many, many years, and we continue to do them on a regular basis. We have enough younger members to make them viable, still. We’ll continue to do that, I guess, as long as we have members that are willing to step forward.

DY:         Do you think your time within this organization was well spent?

VW:       I would say yes. I have participated in many organizations over the years, and I still do in several others, but this one is a little unique because it’s local, it’s related to the parish, and its community focused. So it keeps my interests, to this point.

DY:         Do you want to bring attention to anything about your organization?

VW:       Only that we’re continuing to look for new members to replace the many people that are getting older. But, again, sure that’s happening elsewhere. Not only in The Pas, but in other communities of Manitoba.

DY:         Those are all my questions. Thank you for your time.

VW:       You’re welcome.