Schmeckfest Bake Sale Plays Sweet Role During Lustre’s Celebration
When the 60th annual Lustre Schmeckfest was celebrated on Friday, March 28, a hot spot as always was the bake sale which offered a variety of treats for eager customers.
Ashley Pankratz, chair of this year’s bake sale, explains that the offering of sweets is certainly a community- wide effort.
Women in the community are asked to bring at least three items to be sold at the bake sale. They arrive with items such as cookies, breads, cinnamon rolls, jams, syrups and other favorites.
Pankratz said pretty much everybody donates something and many bring in more than the three item minimum.
“Some years, we might be heavier on cookies, so the next year, we try to get more buns,” Pankratz said.
Biggest sellers are usually frozen verenika, peppernuts and cherry perishke.
“Typically, we have a team of eight people and we go up the day before to set up,” Pankratz said of the committee. This group works the entire night as people don’t only want to buy baked good but also leftovers near the end of the night. The committee includes Darin Pankratz, Joel and Michelle Hilkemann, Dave and Taja Kirkaldie and Wacy and Jami Ortmann.
Ashley explains bakers use the Schmeckfest Cookbook to prepare their donations.
Other committees that make Schmeckfest successful include advertising, auctions, coffeemakers, decorations and displays, finance, gravy makers, leftovers, name tags, procurement, program, reception, steering, tables and chairs and yardmen.
“They like to spread people out to do all the jobs,” she said.
Although she isn’t a native of the Lustre area, this is the fifth year she has served on the bake sale committee. Ashley still remembers the first time she attended Schmeckfest with her husband.
“I was impressed,” she said. “My first impression was that’s a lot of work done by a small community, but everybody is a team player.”
She tried “a little bit” of everything during her first visit to Schmeckfest. Her favorites are verenika and cherry perishke.
“It works really well and it’s been fun to be part of it,” she said of the event.
