KC HELP
The Knights Community Hospital Equipment Lend Program
Our Team
Joe Gallegos
Exemplary Volunteer and KC Help Board of Director
It was a dark and stormy night the evening in 1997 that Joe Gallegos first approached us to become a KC Help Volunteer. We had just decided that the Richland Council could not stay up with the demand for equipment coming from the community during our pilot program. So Jerry Rhoads was dispatched to the other Knights of Columbus councils in our area to beg for help. After his presentation to the St Joseph’s Kennewick Council 8179, a hush fell over the attending member knights. The silent was deafening. With hope that some fellow knights would eventually emerge, he proceeded to his seat and watched as the council meeting went about its normal business. As the meeting ended, Knight Joe Gallegos approached and said he would try to fit in some time to help us out.
You see Joe was a State Highway Patrolman and had a demanding job keeping our highways safe and rescuing victims when it was not. Joe’s other passion was he was Monsignors Dillion’s right hand man. Monsignor was pastor of St Joseph’s Catholic Church in Kennewick always calling Joe for some special project to launch. Many of the parish thought, although Joe was not the namesake of the church, he certainly worked as hard as the original carpenter taking care of the needs of his parish family.
For next couple of decades Joe coordinated the needs of the KC Help clients in east Kennewick on top of everything else he did. Joe has easily been to a thousand homes delivering equipment prior to our opening our Pasco facility. You can find Joe at his station repairing wheelchairs and handling our inventory barcode marking of the equipment donated to us. His humor is contagious and his drive to serve amazing. He is also our chief interpreter ¿Se hablas inglés, señor? no habla español
