Each local group votes on a family from its area to submit as Family of the Year. The criteria used to select the winner are the family’s service to church and community and council involvement.
In his council’s nomination letter, Steve Skaggs, Grand Knight of Southwestern Council 8087, wrote, “Lyn Miller and his family are the model that all Catholic families should base their lives on.”
The Millers attend St. Alphonsus Church in Brighton. Their son, Michael, 22, cleans the church and parish hall each week, with the assistance of his sister, Lea, 32.
“Our daughter has a mild case of Down syndrome, suffers from spina bifida and has multiple other health issues, yet she is very involved in activities to help others,” said Colette. She helps the parish youth group with fund-raisers, and the entire family helps with the Knights annual Tootsie Roll drive.
Lyn and Colette attend daily Mass when they are celebrated at St. Alphonsus, and bring Lea with them on Wednesdays when they take their pastor, Father Raphael Paul, out to breakfast after Mass. Father Paul, a native of Haiti, is also a psychologist at DePaul Hospital in St. Louis. The Millers have become involved in medical mission trips Father Paul has put together to Haiti, and to other Third World countries.
“We’re hoping to go back and start building an orphanage,” a project that has been in the works for better than 10 years, Lyn said.
“We supported a school in the mountains in Haiti for a year. It takes $6,500. Our youth group (at St. Alphonsus) had a cookie sale to raise money.”
“The Millers are a tremendous gift that every parish should have,” said Father Paul. “This is the most reliable family in every aspect of a parish life. The whole family is involved in every aspect of our parish life here.”
Colette is a cantor at Mass and occasionally plays the piano for the choir when she is needed.
The Millers have transformed the former hospital building in Jerseyville into West Pine Retirement Village, an assisted living home for residents. Lyn and Colette both fill-in to cover shifts at the retirement village when they are needed.
They had no idea they had been nominated for the award. “We were over at Cahokia Mounds taking a tour, when I got a call on my cell phone asking if we would attend the state convention in Lombard,” said Lyn. “We’ve always done things in the community to raise funds. We believe there should never be a day when any child should starve in America.”