KNIGHTS BUILD AND INSTALL EXPANDED NATIVITY CRECHE ON MONUMENT SQUARE

A group of Knights from Msgr. Stanley B. Witkowiak Council 697 erected an expanded Nativity creche on Racine’s Monument Square for the 2009 Christmas season. This year, Knights built a series of framed panels with painted depictions of the time of Christ’s birth.

Installation of the Nativity scene along Racine’s Main Street took about three hours, done with labor from 13 Knights and another eight men from the Christmas Coalition of Churches. It is the fourth consecutive year the Coalition and the Knights have sponsored the Nativity.

Grand Knight Don Veselik led a crew of Knights and ladies that built the new scenic panels, which extend from the manger like wings. Weatherproof frames and stands were made for the color posters, which show scenes ranging from “no room at the inn” to the Holy Family’s flight into Egypt. The panels were built within the past week at Veselik’s workshop.

The Christmas Coalition of Churches includes nearly two dozen area Catholic and other Christian churches. More than 100 area churches have expressed support for the project in 2009. The annual effort is organized by Bob Wortock of Wind Point.

After the creche was finished, the men gathered in a circle and offered prayers of thanksgiving for the Christian unity that sustains the Nativity project. Just moments later the sun broke through the heavy clouds and bathed the scene in sunlight.

Knights and others who assisted with the project included Veselik, Bill Frayer, Chet and Helen Leskowicz, Warner Williams, Victor Kendall, John Murphy, Doc Strandell, John Shelby, Jim Marks, Cal Converse, Herb Spalla, Jim Corona and Joe Hanneman.

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