Hermann Knights honored with K of C Faith In Action — Family Award

An old family pork sausage recipe turned out to be well liked, 1,000 pounds worth, and helped earn Hermann Knights of Columbus Council 1914 a prestigious award.

The Knights’ Missouri State Council’s Faith In Action — Family Award was recently presented to Council 1914 Grand Knight Tom Bruckerhoff by Richard Wieberg of Westphalia, District Deputy for the Knights’ District 20 and also Diocesan Growth Chairman for Knights councils in the Jefferson City diocese.

Mr. Wieberg accepted the award on the council’s behalf at the Knights’ Missouri State Convention in Columbia this past April.

He recently presented the award to representatives of Council 1914 after the 10:30 a.m. Mass in St. George Church in Hermann.

“They are working with the community and were recognized for doing many good things,” Mr. Wieberg stated.

There are 1,500 councils in the state, said Mr. Wieberg, who believes this is the first time a council from Central Missouri has won the Faith in Action Family Award.

“Typically, those awards go to the bigger councils in larger cities,” he said.

This is also probably the first time in its 105-year-old history that the Hermann Knights, chartered on June 2, 1918, worked up a large batch of pork sausage as one of its fundraising projects.

It all came about from an open discussion following a gathering of a study group at the home of long-time Knight Leroy Strassner, 88, who joined the Council in 1954.

A group of a half-dozen Knights get together every other week to watch the podcast, “The Bible in a Year” with Father Mike Schmitz.

At the end of those gatherings, they have a session to discuss various things.

That’s when the idea came up about Roland Strassner’s original pork sausage recipe.

He is the late grandfather of current Knights Leroy and Dave Strassner. Roland Strassner lived at Swiss, a small hamlet just south of Hermann.

“We talked about what we could do to build our funds to support our charities,” said Dave Strassner, younger brother of Leroy and a 52-year member of the Knights.

“We took the idea of making our grandfather’s old pork sausage recipe to one of our monthly council meetings, and they were all in agreement to move forward to make it and sell it,” he said.

Several other recipes were sampled by a committee of Knights before they settled on Grandpa Strassner’s old recipe, after it had been tweaked.

“We had to tone it down a little bit,” said Dave Strassner. “The heat level was a little too much.”

They made 500 pounds of one-pound packages, sold out of them quickly, and then made another 500 pounds — and sold most of them.

There were less than 100 pounds left, which were used at the council’s annual Father’s Day breakfast at Valentine Hall in Starkenburg.

Most of the sausage was sold after the Saturday evening and Sunday morning Masses at St. George in Hermann and Church of the Risen Savior in Rhineland.

The Knights who volunteered to sell the sausage were Rick Kopmann, Chris Theissen, Leroy and Dave Strassner, Dennis Kohne and Tom Eggering.

The council had to find a government-certified meat processing facility to make the recipe.

“A few of them contacted Mike Sloan at the Hermann Wurst Haus, and he agreed to work with us,” said Grand Knight Tom Bruckerhoff.

“We had to get a USDA stamp for the packaging, and we were approved for that,” said Mr. Bruckerhoff. “The Wurst Haus is a USDA-approved facility. Mike was very accommodating. He made the sausage and packaged it for us.”

When Mr. Wieberg learned of the overwhelming success of the pork sausage sales, and knew that Council 1914 checked all the boxes to be eligible, he encouraged the Hermann Knights to apply for the Star Council Award and for the state council’s Family Award.

Mr. Bruckerhoff, who succeeded Allen Speckhals as Grand Knight in July 2022, handled the paperwork.

Mr. Bruckerhoff recalls the council meetings when the pork-sausage-making project was discussed.

“The idea of using the sausage sales after Mass was a promotion to welcome people back to church after the coronavirus (COVID 19) kept them away for many months,” he said. “It was a way to reach out to them.”

The sales grossed $4,000, and the Knights netted about $2,200 after expenses. Then the Father’s Day breakfast produced another $1,800.

Initially, said Mr. Bruckerhoff, the money from the sausage sales would go to Coats for Kids, a national program that the Hermann Knights support every year.

Council 1914 purchased four boxes of coats that were distributed through the Hermann Ministerial Alliance, with the assistance of school-based social worker Dawn Grosse of the Gasconade County R-1 School District.

The rest of the money was used to buy “Spirit Shirts” — T-shirts for students and faculty of St. George School to be handed out as they return to the classroom in the fall.

Hermann Council 1914, with 161 dues-paying members, purchases Bibles every year that are distributed to St. George School children.

The council sponsors three breakfasts — Mother’s Day, Father’s Day and Breakfast with Santa — and in recent years has sponsored an ATV Ride through the hills of Rhineland and Starkenburg.

Last year’s ATV ride netted $2,400, which supported the Knights’ local programs, with portions of it going to Missouri Special Olympics and Missouri Right to Life.

In addition to working with the Ministerial Alliance, the Hermann Knights also partner with the local VFW Post to operate a food stand during Oktoberfest weekends.

The Star Council Award recognizes councils for their outstanding achievement in membership, insurance and programming.

In order to achieve the Star Council Award, a council must earn the Father McGivney, Founders’, and Columbian Awards.

Additionally, the council must submit both the Annual Survey of Fraternal Activity and Service Program Personnel Report.

Knights Council 1914 was also recognized locally by the Hermann Chamber of Commerce this year for its work in the community.

“Winning the Star Council Award is like the icing on the cake,” Mr. Wieberg stated.