8th Annual Friday Knights Hunger Bowl Donations Reach New Heights
SEPTEMBER 24, 2024
The 8th Annual Friday KNIGHTS Hunger Bowl was played on Friday, September 13th at Reitz Bowl and culminated in raising $26,000 for the St. Vincent DePaul Food Pantry. The Friday Knights Hunger Bowl Game featured the Reitz Memorial Tigers and Mater Dei Wildcats football teams. This is the eighth year for the HUNGER BOWL. Sister Donna Marie Herr, OSB SVDP
The Pantry Director appreciates all the monies from the supporters of Memorial and Mater Dei. Reitz Memorial won the game 41 to 3.
Fundraising amounts have grown from $3,151.36 in the first year in 2017 to $26,000 for 2024. For an eight-year total of over $120,000.
The students of Reitz Memorial and Mater Dei Catholic High Schools, students of area Catholic Grade Schools, area Knights of Columbus Councils and the attendees of the game itself were involved
in the fundraising. Special thanks to the cheerleaders of both teams for assisting with the halftime collections. Each year we have worked to involve more people, more councils, more schools and more parishes to grow the amount of support we can offer the St. Vincent DePaul Food Bank.
The Friday Knights Hunger Bowl began eight years ago with a conversation between fellow Knights: John Sandwell, from the west side K of C Council Auxilio Council #16454 (St. Phillips and Corpus Christi parishes) and Mark Hackert, from the east side St. Benedict Cathedral Council 7544) from an article Sandwell read in the Knights of Columbus magazine Columbia about two Florida Catholic High Schools that raised money to purchase turkeys for the needy at Thanksgiving, called THE TURKEY BOWL. The topic was how we can work together with the other councils in Evansville
area promote the Knights of Columbus mission toward a worthy goal. The conversation turned to the St. Vincent DePaul Food Pantry and Sister Donna Marie Herr, the food pantry coordinator, who had been a teacher at Mater Dei. From this conversation the Friday Knights Hunger Bowl was born.
For more information or conversation on the Knights of Columbus and Hunger Bowl contact:
Co-Chairs for Friday Knights Hunger Bowl Brother Knight Mark Hackert Brother Knight John SandwellKnights of Columbus Knights of Columbus St. Benedict Cathedral Council 7544 Auxillio Council 16454 812-319-6403 812-250-1923 Mhackert76@gmail.com sandwell@sbcglobal.net
Friday Knights Hunger Bowl Committee Members Joe Cook, SVDP Executive Director, Nick Hermann, K of C Council 7544, Martin Stagg, K of C Council 7544, Julie Folz,
