CUA Knights, New Sister Organization Host Breakfast Fundraiser
Image Courtesy of Anthony Curioso
By Anthony Curioso
How did you spend the First Sunday of Lent this year?
Some of the CUA council of the Knights of Columbus spent much of the morning on February 22 preparing and serving food for the council’s second annual Pancake Breakfast fundraiser, with all proceeds going to St. Anthony’s Catholic School in Brookland.
Unlike the first iteration of the event in 2025, which was hosted only by the Knights, this year’s Pancake Breakfast fundraiser was a combined effort between the Knights and a newly re-established CUA chapter of the Catholic Daughters of the Americas (CDA), an organization that serves essentially the same purpose for Catholic women as the Knights of Columbus serves for Catholic men.
The menu for the Pancake Breakfast featured several pancake options, bacon, orange juice, eggs, and syrup, orderable in one of four combinations or as individual items.
Each of the combination platters had a specific name, themed around an activity or a person related to the CUA Knights of Columbus. The largest combo special on offer— a combination plate consisting of nine pancakes, five strips of bacon, four tablespoons of maple syrup, and two glasses of orange juice— was named for Peter James, a senior and member of the CUA Knights who has gained a reputation among the group for having a rather larger appetite than his fellow men.
Kelly Mosier, a sophomore theology major and one of the inaugural members of CDA, commented on how CDA came to be involved in the Pancake Breakfast.
“The Catholic Daughters are the sister organization to the Knights, and Reagan Beissel [a sophomore biochemistry major and Regent of the new CDA Court at CUA] and I were working toward forming this new community to accompany the Knights with the women on campus,” Mosier said. “We’ve got a whole group of ladies here who were willing to help, and we were glad to assist the Knights where we could and add our own flair with eggs and fruit cups on top of the existing Knights menu for this event, which included the pancakes, orange juice, and bacon.”
Mosier also shared that she was glad to see several people forming smaller communities as a result of their attendance at the Pancake Breakfast.
Joseph Donnelly, a junior history and philosophy major who helped facilitate the Pancake Breakfast on the Knights of Columbus’s end, shared that he is looking forward to the prospect of further collaborative events between CUA’s chapters of the Knights and the CDA—a sentiment which Mosier appeared to echo.
“The Knights have done a great job with this event every year, and it’s an honor to be working with them,” Mosier said. “I think being able to join forces between the Catholic Daughters and the Knights made this event a massive success.”
Only time will tell what the future holds for the CDA’s upcoming campus events and any other collaborative events between the CDA and the Knights of Columbus. If the Pancake Breakfast is any indication, it seems the CDA will put on many more awesome events, in no small part thanks to the assistance of Fr. Ceslaus Kowalkowski, the CDA’s new Chaplain and also the Chaplain for Undergraduate Formation within Campus Ministry.
Mosier commented on how Fr. Ceslaus’s support has been and will continue to be critical to the success of the newly re-established CDA.
“Fr. Ceslaus’s prayer support is essential for our mission, and his demeanor is so well-suited for supporting us women that having his presence will be a major encouragement to all the ladies on campus,” Mosier said.
Caitlyn Kuhn, a sophomore accounting major and fellow inaugural member of CUA’s CDA chapter, further shared that she hopes Fr. Ceslaus’s connection to the students through his role in Campus Ministry will help form a strong foundation for the new CDA members and draw additional young women on campus into the group.
