Each September, Knights of Columbus fan out across the Chicago area wearing yellow safety vests and armed with buckets and Tootsie Rolls for the annual candy drive benefiting people with intellectual disabilities.
It’s a nationwide drive that has its roots in the Father C.C. Boyle Council 4698 in Tinley Park.
In the late 1960s, Knight Raymond Berg had a child with intellectual disabilities and approached the council at St. George Parish about raising money to support charities that helped children like his own. His fellow knights jumped on board, and they proposed holding a candy drive.
A knight had a connection at Tootsie Roll Industries, which was based in Chicago, so they reached out to the company.
In 1969, members took it to the state council for approval and in 1970 the first candy drive kicked off. Not long after, councils across Illinois joined, as did councils across the nation.
That first year, the council raised $30,000. It continues to meet or exceed that mark almost every year.
Today the Father C.C. Boyle Council includes the Tinley Park parishes of St. George, St. Stephen Deacon and Martyr and St. Julie Billiart, St. Elizabeth Seton in Orland Hills and St. Damian Parish in Oak Forest.
Funds raised by the local council stay in the community and support parish SPRED programs, said Lance Bertolli, grand knight of Father C.C. Boyle Council.
While the Knights of Columbus don’t receive a discount on the candy, Tootsie Roll Industries customizes the wrappers to include an explanation of the drive.
Deacon Tom Schutzius’ father was a knight in the early days of the candy drive, and he has used the story of the drive’s inception in his homilies at St. George. Schutzius compares the idea for the drive to the parable of the mustard seed. The candy drive was just the small seed of an idea, but once planted, it grew to cover the whole country and do a lot of good at the same time.
This year, members stood at major intersections the second weekend of September collecting donations and giving out Tootsie Rolls. Since its inception, the drive has also included members sitting outside of grocery stores and theaters and selling candy banks — in chocolate or fruit flavors — after weekend Masses.
“The first few years, the drive was in November and it was cold,” said longtime Knight Leon Stremlau, who used to man the corner of Harlem Avenue and 171st Street. “I remember freezing many, many years.”
At 87, Stremlau leaves dodging traffic to the younger knights and instead helps out in the “counting room.”
“We have to unfold all of those crinkled bills,” he said. “There are a lot of generous people out there.”
As a sign of the times, the knights recently started accepting credit card donations outside the grocery stores and theaters. That’s still impossible at the busy intersections.
The whole council looks forward to the candy drive each year, Bertolli said.
“There is no doubt that the street drive in middle September is the main event for our council,” Bertolli said. “To see my brother knights out there dodging traffic in heat and rain and really putting forth a tremendous effort to fill up one can after another with donations is heartwarming to see.”
Many of the SPRED teachers and volunteers also come out to help the Knights during the drive.
“The most heartwarming thing for me is some of our clients, members of those groups, are out there in the yellow vests helping us to collect as much money as possible,” Bertolli said.
“A lot of people have come to know why we’re out there,” Bertolli went on. “The first thing they’ll say is ‘Thank you for the work you’re doing.’ So they know where the money is going.”
People will also say that their father or grandfather or uncle was a knight.
Schutzius remembers a woman telling him it meant a lot to her that they were out their supporting people with intellectual disabilities.
“She says, ‘It means so much that you’re standing up.’ I always tell the knights, we stand up to bring about the dignity of the person.”