2023 - 2024

Patrick and Teresita Parson

2020 - 2021

John & Margie Harshberger

2019 - 2020

Joseph Krebs

It is a great privilege that Council 1577 select the Krebs family as our family of the year. Joe, Nicole, Isabel, Cal, Max, Luci, Gabby, Teddy, Benny and Emelia are a staple in the parish of Our Lady of Perpetual Hope, in Albany, OR. They are involved throughout the parish and community, giving of their time and sharing their faith. In addition to being selected as our Family of the Year, Joe and Nicole have been selected as Knight (September) and Lady (October) of the Month respectively.

Joe and Nicole are sponsors for Confirmandi and serve as godparents. They sponsor two children for Unbound in Guatemala and India for their education, food and medicine. They are leaders and workers at parish events such as the Shrove Tuesday Festival, Easter Egg Hunt, Summer Festival, KofC breakfasts, Community Open Mic Nights and Stations of the Cross and Simple Meal during Lent. Joe and Nicole coordinated the Little Flowers’ inaugural Father Daughter Night, bringing fathers and daughters together for the night to celebrate family.

Joe is our Family Director and serves as an usher at our evening Spanish mass. He coordinated the Keep Christ in Christmas Poster Contest, and is working on revamping our Holy Family Prayer Program. Joe volunteers to help with most council projects giving of his time and talents.

Nicole is a co-founder of the Little Flowers Girls Club. It has turned out to be one of the largest ministries in the parish. She is a Teacher’s Aide in elementary Religious Education for 3rd Graders. Nicole participated in the Mother Daughter Tea, Advent Festival and other events of the parish.

Their children are involved in everything going on at the parish and community.
Isabel is a member of the High School Youth Group. She assists with the Confirmation retreat and is a Youth leader and helper for the Summer Parish Festival. Isabel is a Vacation Bible School Group Leader. She participated in the Albany Summer Ready program. She attended the Summer Experience in Science and Engineering at Oregon State University and the Girl State Summer camp at Willamette University. She is a senior at West Albany High School (WAHS) and enrolled at Linn Benton Community College (LBCC), majoring in biology, which she will begin full time in the fall. She is involved in 5 different clubs as WAHS, Model UN General Assembly Ambassador, Poetry Club Vice President and Co-founder, InterAct Leader, Youth and Government House of Representative, and Key Club Member.

Cal is an Altar Server and was confirmed this year. He attended Quo Vadis Days. He is a member of the High School Youth Group and Boy Scout Troop 322 where he’s worked on multiple service projects such as landscaping the church. He participated in the Summer Boy Scout Camp at Camp Baldwin. He was a Youth Leader and helper for the Summer Parish Festival and assisted with the audio visuals for Vacation Bible School. He has participated in the SWARM Robotics team for 3 years, competing at Nationals in the Spring of 2018. He is currently a junior at WAHS and was a member of their track team. He has begun his Associate Degree in Mechatronics at LBCC. He’s also participated in the Albany summer reading program.

Max is also an Altar Server and participated in the Middle School Youth Group. He was a volunteer at the Vacation Bible School as a Kindergarten Youth Leader. Max participated in the Soccer Challenge and Free Throw Championship, winning his age group at the council level. He was a Youth Leader and Helper at the Summer Parish Festival and attended the Middle School Youth Group Summer Retreat. He is a boy scout of Troop 322 and did multiple service projects including marking storm drains for the city, cleaned and pulled weeds for winter lodge future campers and assisted with the Knights of Columbus pancake breakfast for the scouting programs. He also participated in the Summer Boy Scout Camp at Camp Baldwin. Max volunteered as a server for the school lunch program at his school and participated in the Albany summer reading program

Luci is an altar server and attends the Middle School Youth Group. She attended the Middle School Youth Group Summer retreat. She volunteers as a Youth Leader and Helper for the Summer Parish Festival, Parish Advent Festival, the Shrove Tuesday Dinner. She is a junior leader for the Little Flowers club and attends Middle School as a 6th Grader. She played Volleyball for the Boys and Girls Club, Cross Country Team, voted most athletic student and presented the Future President Award at Oak Grove elementary. She participated in the Jogathon 5 miler, and a 5k run for kids and Gobbler’s Revenge 5k winning her age group. Luci participated in the KofC Soccer Challenge and Free Throw Championship. She is a Self-Manager at her school and a gold card member for excellent effort in class. She participated in the OSU Wilderness Summer Camp and the Albany Summer Reading Program.

2017 - 2018

Patrick Parson

Patrick and Teresita have been the Culture of Life Couple for our council as well as the Culture of Life Couple for the State of Oregon. They have organized council support in marching in Roe v Wade Memorial Marches, praying outside abortion clinics, leading a monthly Rosary for Life, publishing monthly newsletters for the council and the state, and providing YouTube videos Vlogs on the Right to Life.

Teresita sang in the choir while both Patrick and Teresita led our Rosary for Life held each month in the Church. They participated as a couple in the Vacation Bible School program to engage our youth. They helped inform our parish as well as the State Knights on important issues concerning the sanctity of life by maintaining a bulletin board, publishing the newsletters electronically as well as the video logs. They continue to lead the parish and council effort to gather signatures on the right to life petition to get an initiative on the ballot to end public funding of abortion in Oregon. Patrick and Teresita are self starters with a true dedication to the culture of life. They dare to go where others will not follow.

Patrick and Teresita prayed outside an abortion clinic even though no other Knights or people from the community would. They did this for the entire Lenten season and will be doing it again this year. This year they will be leading a carpool of parishioners to the clinic for prayers. Patrick and Teresita have worked with Options Prenatal Clinic to initiate the UltraSound program and have also been working with the Parish Priest to put in a Memorial for the Unborn. They are nominated for their tenacity, compassion and fortitude. They exemplify the true spirit of being Domestic Church.

2016 - 2017

Kenneth Duda

It is a great privilege that Council 1577 select the Duda Family as our Family of the Year. Ken, Suzie, Jake, Mackenzie and Owen are a staple in the parish of Our Lady of Perpetual Hope, in Albany, OR. They are involved throughout the parish and community, giving of their time and sharing their faith. In addition to being selected as our Family of the Year, Suzie and Mackenzie were selected as Lady of the Month for July and November respectively.

Suzie is the Early Elementary Religious Education Coordinator. She coordinates the training for our elementary youth. Suzie works exhaustively to challenge our younger children and inspires families to work together in their religious education. She is a primary staffer for the Whole Community Catechesis (WCC) program. WCC is intergenerational learning and community building for all church members. The events are for ages 5 years and up. She generously gives of her time and effort to lead these sessions. During the summer, she coordinated and ran the Vacation Bible School for the Parish. There were over 80 students involved. Her daughter Mackenzie assisted Suzie in the religious education and assisted in running the Vacation Bible School.

The entire family is extremely musical. Suzie is the Youth Choir Director and was a member of the parish choir. She works throughout the year with our youth choir, blending the voices of all children of various talents, skill and experience. She gives of her time for rehearsals and masses. Mackenzie is in the youth and adult choir while Owen is in the Youth Choir. Jake participates in the adult choir when he’s on break from Oregon State University.

Mackenzie is a terrific young lady of our parish. Her involvement in activities is remarkable for her generation. Mackenzie in a member of our Adult Choir and helps with the Children's Choir. She assists with Confirmation, Religious Education, and Vacation Bible School. Parishioners point out that she is terrific with young children. Mackenzie also works as a Cadet Teacher at Fir Grove School. She works on the FISH Food Drive and Backpacks of Hope and Blanket Making. She belongs to the STAND Club, which promotes anti-drug/alcohol for teens. She also is a volunteer babysitter, helping to care for the young of our parish. Mackenzie exemplifies all that is right with the youth of our community and parish.

Jake is a student at Oregon State University. He was also involved in parish activities throughout the Church before entering College. He sings in the adult choir whenever he gets home for the weekend.

Owen serves as an acolyte and sings in the youth choir. Owen is a leader of his age group. He recruited other youth of his age to be acolytes and teaches them their duties and responsibilities.

The Duda family’s acts of charity and service exemplify the qualities and traits that represent the Knights of Columbus Order.

2015 - 2016

Keefer

Terri and Jon met at Youngstown State University as college students. Terri was a cradle Catholic. She led Jon to the Catholic faith prior to their marriage. They have six children, Jennifer, Christina, Jon, Frank, Mike and Matt. The children have all completed college degrees, and three have Masters. Four of the six are married, and one is planning his wedding this July. They are proud grandparents of 6 grandsons; Jethro, Wilson, Kevin, Jason, Toby, and Nathan and one soon to be spoiled granddaughter, Juliet. Only Mike and his wife live in Oregon, and Jon and Terri love to travel to see the grandchildren as often as finances allow. Terri not only raised all six children, often on her own, but she served as the head of a Family Support Group. She worked as a teacher at St Patrick’s Catholic School in Fayetteville, NC, and also worked as a bank teller for Key Bank and Umpqua bank until her retirement in 2013. During these years, Jon and Terri nurtured their faith and the faith of others through numerous Catholic programs. Jon and Terri attended Marriage Encounter and Cursillo weekends. They were presenting couples for Marriage Encounter until they realized their children were apostolic orphans. They changed their efforts to Marriage Preparations, having provided Marriage Prep classes for the last 30+ years, through numerous dioceses and states. Jon and Terri retired in Oregon and joined St Mary’s Church when they arrived in 1994. They watched their children work through the sacraments at St Mary’s until they became empty-nesters. Jon and Terri believe in the strength and holiness of their marriage and attempt to function as a couple in all things. They serve as Eucharistic Ministers and as a couple on the Parish Council. They continue to work with engaged couples and are now heading up the Marriage Preparation Training for St Mary’s. Terri was elected to the Archdiocesan Parish Council, representing two Vicariates, for Archbishop Sample. Jon joined the Knights of Columbus in 2014 and is a 4th Degree Knight. He serves the Albany Council 1577 in whatever capacity he can. His favorite program is the Building the Domestic Church. Jon serves with the Council Exemplification Team and enjoys working with brothers serving others.

2014 - 2015

Freeman

Congratulations to Dan Freeman and his entire family on being chosen
Albany Council 1577 "2014 Family of the Year"