The theme for the Jackson County Extension Homemakers Achievement Night was “Let’s have dinner together.”
Ruth Ann Hendrix of the Kum Join Us club organized the event conducted May 12 in the fellowship hall at St. Paul Lutheran Church Borchers.
She is a member of the church, so it was easy for them to get things set up there. She said the best way to describe the homemakers clubs is they’re like 4-H for grownups.
Bryan “KY” Hendrix, Ruth Ann’s husband, was the entertainment for the evening, and he played guitar and sang some original songs.
Club members brought their own brown bag dinners, and some brought in cultural arts projects they had created over the past year or so and displayed them on tables to be judged.
“There were a lot of crafts entered last year because people made them while they stayed home during the pandemic,” said Molly Marshall, health and human sciences educator for Purdue Extension Jackson County.
Lucy Dembek was the judge for the projects. The categories included quilting, needlework, crocheting, knitting, crafts, miscellaneous and special project. She also judged creative name badges.
“One of my first teaching jobs was in Seymour as a family consumer science teacher. Then I got married to Bob Dembek and moved out east and taught culinary,” Dembek said. “After 38 years of teaching, I thought it was time to finish, and we moved back to Jackson County next door to my sister, Donna Sullivan, who used to be a coach at Seymour.”
Dembek said her biggest things right now is her love of God and her church. She’s a member at Central Christian Church and has been co-president of the Community Diner for 12 years. She also is a seamstress.
“The Community Diner feeds people out of First United Methodist Church in Seymour every Monday with a hot meal and a cold meal,” she said. “Right now, we’re serving between 85 and 100 people every week, so that keeps me busy.”
After judging the projects, Dembek said there were some really nice things entered, and she didn’t want to disappoint anyone and saw things in each project that showed something about the person who made it.
Winners were Jeanie Schneider for her John Deere quilt, Michelle Wood for her prayer shawl, Ruth Ann Hendrix for her Christmas tree advent calendar, Karen Hendrix for her American flag wreath and Olga Otte for her photo of flowers with a church in the background. The grand prize winner overall was Schneider.
Schneider is a member of the Country Friends homemakers club and also is leader of the Blue Ribbon Winners 4-H Club in Seymour, clothing chairwoman for Jackson County and a member of the 4-H Council.
“I started a 4-H club at Margaret R. Brown Elementary School in my classroom when Pam Hess was the 4-H extension agent. Then when I went to Redding Elementary, I taught kindergarten, and it was hard to have a club,” she said. “Now, I teach second grade, and when the ones that were leading Blue Ribbon Winners left, I took it over, and now, I have kids from every elementary school plus Immanuel kids, and it’s great because the bus can drop them off to our meetings.”
Accepting a certificate for the Friends and Neighbors club’s 50th anniversary was President Ruby Niccum.
Receiving Gold Club recognition were Kum Join Us and Friends and Neighbors. Freetown Friends received a Blue Club recognition.
Charlotte Lovegrove, a member of Friends and Neighbors, gave a tribute to members of the club who have recently died. Those members were Martha McIntire, Carol Bobb and Joan Davidson.
“Theses ladies were all Christians, God-loving ladies and we will miss them, their witness and their acts of kindness,” Lovegrove said.
Hendrix remembered two women from Kum Join Us: Her aunt, Thelma Greathouse, and past member Mildred Carter.
Officers being recognized were Ruth Ann Hendrix, vice president; Sandi Hall, secretary; Debbie Rouse, treasurer; and Olga Otte, president.
Members brought in canned goods they had collected for food pantries and empty prescription bottles for a mission project.
Lovegrove said she likes being in the homemakers group because she likes going places, being with friends and talking to people.
“We just enjoy each other, and several of us go to church together and we enjoy getting together, and we don’t just have monthly meetings at our homes,” Lovegrove said. “We also go on tours together, we go to other towns to eat, we’ve been down to the horse farm and the Vallonia fish farm and have learned all kids of things.”
Marshall said there are 10 extension homemakers clubs, but two more will be disbanding this coming year.
“We are always looking for new members,” she said. “So if someone is interested in joining extension homemakers, they can call our office 812-358-6101.”