MANHEIM FARM SHOW 2014

Sniff. Sniff.  Do you smell grease too?  What?  Oh, yes, you may be right -  it might just be embedded in our skin for a few days yet.  We will not be offended if you choose to sit a bench behind us in church on Sunday.  Giggle. Giggle.  We did wash the splatters off our glasses though, and washed shirts & hats that will never be clean again & put them in the special places in our closets & drawers reserved for such articles of clothing.

We.are.exhausted.  But smiling!  J

23 youth members + 15 youth parents + 23 congregation members + 8 youth leaders = RECORD YEAR IN SALES!!

What an incredible blessing! 

 We were on course for this last year (and still had a good year), but it was nice to not have the rain about carry the stand away on flood waters this year!  J

Sometimes the lines got quite long in front of the stand this week.  A wonderful thing, but sometimes a little disconcerting when you were throwing burgers on the grill in a continuous fashion, and they just weren’t getting done quick enough.  On Thursday evening the crowd in front of the stand voluntarily formed their own line ‘bout down to the milkshake stand.  It was amazing to us how gracious & patient almost every person was, and it was awesome to look out & see lots of you smiling back at us from the line.  We appreciated your encouraging words & bits of laughter you provided as you reached the stand!  Oh, and also the words “don’t bother with the change”.  You were generous!

Even in the busiest, craziest, we-don’t-have-enough-help, we-need-four-grills moments, we realized what a powerful opportunity it was to be a witness to those in line.  We smiled, we thanked profusely, wished everyone a wonderful evening, and were rewarded with so many bright smiles in return!

The small-town-community attitude is so transparent during the farmshow.  It’s amazing!

An older person from our stand treated a kid to a whoopie pie ‘cause the kid didn’t have enough money along, when we apologized for any kind of wait most people smiled and waved their hand and said, “no problem”, another person working in our stand was able to share details of our Anabaptist heritage, another person in line commented on the smiles & attitude in our stand…people are watching….what a wonderful opportunity to quietly share Jesus!  J

Not that we were quiet IN the stand.  It got almost comical yelling out orders.  “Doooubbble Cheeseburger, no make that 4, 2 regular cheeseburgers and 1 hamburger, 5 hotdogs – 2 with kraut, can anyone get me 2 pepsi’s, 1 mountain dew, 1 sunkist and 3 waters?”  “Do we have straws?”  “Anyone know where the knife is to divide this burger for these folks?”  “Can someone please get down another bag of buns?”  Ice.  We need ice in the drinks! 

 We sold approximately 4000 burgers, 1600 hotdogs, almost 2000 drinks, and 200 egg sandwiches (which included 25 lbs. of bacon).  We used 100 lbs of cheese this week, and sold a little over 1200 whoopie pies!

Rosene headed up that whoopie-pie venture.  Over the course of 3 different days, and some very early mornings, her and some awesome volunteers made, filled and wrapped all those humongous, give-me-a-sugar-high, yummy, chocolate creations.  We had quite a few repeat customers, and saved empty hotdog bun bags for the many who walked away with 5 or more in one trip.

We know no one ever wants special recognition, but we would like to say THANKS!!! to the following from the advisors... 

To the youth:   this is one of your biggest fundraisers each year.  We are so thankful of the sacrifices you made in schedules, sleep, etc. to help out for a few hours.   Thank you for scurrying between sports schedules, homework, school activities & farmshow obligations to volunteer time in the stand!!  J  We are proud of you!

Youth Parents:  for graciously helping out wherever you can ‘cause this is a huge undertaking, and for being the taxi drivers here and there!

Crystal:  Us advisors come and go, and so we appreciate you (and those in the past) heading up the food stand, ordering & picking up supplies, working in the mornings, and helping to clean up in the evenings!  Thank you!!! 

Rosene & whoopie pie crew:  Thank you for so willingly offering to quietly do all that behind-the-scenes labor!  It is an awesome boost to our profit margin, and they are so very yummy!

Joyce:  Not sure how you cut up all those onions, but we’re quite grateful you do!!

Linda:  Clean-up at the end of every evening is not a fun or glamorous job!  Thank you for how you & Gene help out, and for preparing our deposits each night so it’s one less thing we have to do!  It’s always fun to guess the totals at the end of each night.  Oh, and also for purchasing & delivering all the sodas! J

Congregation:  So many of you volunteer in the stand year after year after year.  It is so appreciated ‘cause you know what you’re doing, and you do it so well!!  To those who were new this year – thank you for just pitching in and having teachable attitudes!!  And to those who stood in line and supported us in buying food – thank you, thank you!

We talked often about how well it all runs each year overall! 

It took ALL of you to make this a success again this year! 

We are grateful!

 
THANK YOU! THANK YOU!
THANK YOU! THANK YOU!

See most of you again next year.  Same time. Same place. Same food.  :)  :)

Below are a few pictures.  Sorry there aren't more - too busy to remember to snap photos each night.  :)