“We really like to be in the kitchen together,” said member Ruth White. “Everybody wants to help other people, but it is a lot more fun if you can do it together.”
So everyone can keep up on the group effort and other topics, there’s a table in the kitchen where members can sit, rest and talk during their time, as White described it, “off the stove.”
The women in the group range in age from their 50s to the 80s.
During the first years of the group, they worked in the basement kitchen of the church. When a new church fellowship hall was built some 11 years ago, it included a new kitchen on the first floor.
Around the same time, a name was sought for the group. White’s sister told her about a Sisters of the Skillet group where she lived in Maine. The name received a warm reception, and stuck.
A former member made aprons for the ladies to solidify the name and identify group members.
The aprons now are part of the sisters’ traditions that also include making turkey noodle soup using broth and turkey from the group’s Thanksgiving turkey. “That makes it extra special,” White said. They continue to use a former member’s recipe.
While the Sisters of the Skillet focus on helping others, they have a support group to ensure the complete job is done. White said a “special forces group of men” work hard in a “man cave’” dishwashing room during events.
In addition to the service projects, the Sisters of the Skillet have two fundraisers a year — running the lunch stand at the annual Art for the Heart event in early February and working the annual sauerkraut and brats supper at the church, also in February.
The proceeds help pay for the meal projects and other outreach ministries.
“We want to help people but like to have an active part of it. We want to do something with our hands,” said White.
Contact this contributing writer at nancykburr@aol.com.
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