Young Knights drawn to helping others

August 17, 2023

When Bryce Follett was a boy, he got to tag along with his dad at Knights of Columbus events, planting the seed that would lead him to become a knight himself when he turned 18. 

Four years later, he and several of his friends and brother Knights are the technical crew behind the Iowa Knights of Columbus. Running the sound and the lights has become their special ministry within the Knights of Columbus, something many young Knights are seeking. 

“I look for a task,” said Sean McGee, who runs the lights and sounds with Follett. “I need to roll up my sleeves and help.” 

McGee, of St. Patrick Parish in Perry, and Follett, of Our Lady’s Immaculate Heart in Ankeny, both joined the Knights when they turned 18. They are now 22. Although that puts them on the younger end of the Knights, they don’t consider their age to be entirely unusual in the group. 

“I would say it’s something the Knights are struggling with. They are focusing and aiming towards trying to get more of the younger crowd, but it’s all dependent on parish,” said Follett. The younger the parishioners are, the younger the knights are going to be as well, he said. 

Also, young Knights are sometimes not at their home parish’s council because they leave for college, giving the appearance that their parish has fewer young knights than they actually do. 

“You’re going to see a lot more concentration of younger Knights at college councils rather than at your parish,” McGee pointed out. 

For both of them, a major draw to the knights is their commitment to helping their brother Knights, fellow Catholics, and fellow humans. Both the witness of the knights helping local families and their efforts to help displaced families in Ukraine has been impactful to them. 

“You have to be a little bit proud and a little bit humbled at the same time that you can be part of that whilst being thousands of miles away,” McGee said. That sense of community is what causes many young Knights to join, providing them with community and fraternity in an environment of faith. 

Both Follett and McGee agree that being a member of the Knights has helped them grow in faith. 

“My faith mostly goes hand in hand with the Knights and I understand more of the value of faith and charity, let alone community, being with the Knights than I had without,” McGee said. 

“You can literally go anywhere and you can find someone who has the same faith and values that you do with the Knights,” Follett added. 

Statistics from their recent convention show that the Knights of Columbus are growing, in part thanks to young Knights like Follett and McGee, but also to the other generations who happen to be joining just now.

“We have some that are joining and they’re 60 or 65,” said Follett. “I think we had someone join who was 85 or 90.” 

McGee emphasized this point, saying that it wasn’t just the younger Knights joining because their fathers are Knights, but that some fathers are joining at the request of their sons. 

“It doesn’t just go one way generationally; it goes both.”