The first one is in the books

During the first fish fry of the 2026 Lenten season, someone asked me “why do you do this?  Do you make money on these?”  Two perfectly legitimate questions.  My answers were:  “no, we make very little money on the fish fries and we do it to promote social bonding in the church community”.  Since we have not raised the price for the past three years (it’s still 10 bucks), it stands to reason that we are making less and less money on the fish fries.  No worries about that; we have other sources of income for this council.  As far as the bonding goes, I observed many hugs being shared among the folks enjoying the delicious meals of fish, French fries, hush puppies salad/coleslaw with condiments and drinks.  That’s a very filling meal; we actually handed out quite a few to-go boxes because it was more than you could eat at one sitting.  Another aspect of these fish fries is the comradery that goes on amongst the Knights who set up, cook, prepare, and serve the meal.  There was a good bit of joking around and good humored banter while working as a team.  On this particular event on February 20, 2026, 34 Knights plus Holly Patterson and Connie Caraveo helped to serve approximately 234 guests.  It kind of went like this:  Dan Murphy, who watched over the cooking operation (that’s fish, French fries and hush puppies), was aided by Joel Lopez, Jorge Caraveo, Cesar Villareal, Jim Kowalski, Jeff Traub, Jeff Miller, Larry Balagna, Doug Karpan, Mike Fitzgerald, Jesus Montellongo, Gerardo Terron, Gamaliel Hernandez, and Arthur Rodriguez.  The kitchen crew was Frank Salazar and John Owen.  Joe Eubank and Molly Patterson prepared the salads and coleslaw.  David Ybarra, who oversaw the serving line, was aided by Hector Lopez, Phil Holifield, Ray Rivera, John Espree, Juan Espinoza, Connie Caraveo and Gonzalo Aillon.  The Knights making the fish tacos were Rolando Sobalvarro, Gerado Lopez, and Tony Gonzalez.  Mike Clark looked after the drinks.  Steve Reid, and Marc Evans cleared tables as needed.  Rod Kinard and Jose Valles came for clean-up.  James Smith was the money taker.  I just took pictures. What a team effort – you make us all proud!!