Kum Join Us Extension Homemakers Club hosted the annual Jackson County achievement night dinner on Thursday at Redeemer Lutheran Church in Seymour.

Members from three Jackson County homemaker groups arrived to recognize homemaking accomplishments: Freetown Friends, Friends and Neighbors and Kum Join Us. There were roughly 20 women present including Jackson County Visitor Center’s Arann Banks.

Before the dinner, guests were encouraged to look around the tables. One displayed four scrapbooks with history of the homemakers, as early as 1966 and as late as 1997. Inside contained newspaper clippings, photographs, letters and pieces of artwork. The oldest scrapbook, dated 1966-1967, was bound without a hardcover, proving its age.

The homemakers brought handmade items in different mediums including drawings, wreaths, photographs, quilts and the main attraction: table runners. These items were divided into three categories: quilting, miscellaneous and special project.

More examples of handmade work was displayed as center pieces on the dining tables. One example of these was a tin and wire toaster. There also were jars and vases with flowers, provided by Karen and Ruth Ann Hendrix from their individual gardens.

By the pitch-in buffet line was a table for the door prizes and another table with non-perishable food items to be donated. Part of this donation table was bottles going toward Matthew 25: Ministries. The bottles will be used for missions in other countries, when they need to hand out medication and other liquids to those who have no where to store it.

When the achievement night began a little after 5 p.m., the women stood and spoke their homemaker’s pledge, pledging to “the greatest institution: the home.” This was followed by the Pledge of Allegiance.

Before the meal, the group of women was lead in prayer, praying over the women and the meal, “to preserve [their] home and heritage.”

The meal was a pitch-in effort by all the homemakers present. Food included salad, Hawaiian roll sandwiches, crackers with meat and cheese, asparagus, green beans, pasta salad and more. For dessert, there were pies, eclairs and many sweets, including the cake for the Wegan Wide Awake Club to celebrate the club’s 100 years and properly send them off, as this will be their last year together.

While the women were eating, judging took place for the crafted items. Since the special project was table runners, the winner of the judging will be sent with their table runner to the Indiana Home & Family conference in June 10-12 in Noblesville.

During the back-end of the meal, Arann Banks with the Jackson County Visitors Center talked about her job.

Banks proudly spoke about Jackson County, her job and all of the things going on in the county such as the fair and Oktoberfest. She explained how the Visitor Center was built in 1890 and that in the walls, you can see the writings of where people once would engrave to indicate where things would go.

Banks discussed the need for places that are affordable for families. While people still want to go to the big events like amusement parks and resorts, Banks said that now, a lot of people want to “take their kids to anywhere where they can touch and feel.” Banks is glad that Jackson County can provide these experiences to Seymour natives and visitors alike.

Banks also talked about fresh things happening such as a new hotel being established in 2025, micro wrestling at this year’s Jackson County Fair and the topic of restaurants in Seymour.

Eating the food that night reminded Banks of how delicious homemade cooking is.

“Church food should have its own restaurant,” she said.

As Banks concluded her talk about Jackson County, Macey Stuckwisch thanked Banks and gave her a pin with the homemaker’s motto on it: Get connected, stay connected.

Following the talk came gift-giving and awards. Stuckwisch handed three representatives of Wegan Wide Awake Club wooden, engraved Christmas ornaments to commemorate their 100 years existing as a club.

Sheryl Ault was appointed as the new county president of the homemakers and told the story about meeting her husband. The couple started dating on March 31 and exactly one year later, they were married.

Ault also expressed the difficulties with getting young women to join the homemakers due to work, kids and other external factors. “It’s a shame to let it die,” she said along with the commitment to do her best as president.

Mandy Otte was recognized as vice president, Karen Hendrix as secretary and Skye Hendrix as treasurer.

Awards were given out next. Freetown Friends received blue while Friends and Neighbors and Kum Join Us received gold.

The winners of each craft category was announced with Misty Stuckwisch’s table runner winning first place in special project. The next special project was also announced: placemats.

Finally, door prizes were announed. Some of the prizes included a bowl set and cookies.

While there were many achievements to recognize, many of the women were sure to highlight the Wegan Wide Awake Club.

Speaking about their experiences with the club, Nina Hackman said that the best part of the entire experience was being with friends and constantly learning.

“The difference between 1924 and 2024 is crazy,” Hackman said.

Velma Nierman said that they used to have to walk everywhere for their meetings since they couldn’t drive and their husbands would be out working. Because their meetings were in the afternoon, their meetings also included their children, too.

Doris Frey had only been with the club for a year, but had deep roots in the history of the club, her family having been apart of its inception.

With this achievement night, these women were able to express their thanks and say goodbye to the Wegan Wide Awake Club and look forward to what happens next with the Extension Homemakers.