Quilting with a side of meatballs

The Community Lutheran Church of Geneva held a meatball dinner accompanied by a “beautiful quilt raffle” over the lunch hour on Sunday, April 27. More than 260 people attended, and almost $3,000 was raised to support church endeavors. Not only was the parking lot of the church full, streetside parking for blocks in each direction was also hard to come by.

The raffle was a chance to win a quilt made by Joan Vandenhuvel; it was donated in her memory by family. Proceeds from the meal and raffle are slated for the church’s music and quilting funds. Jan Bartsch and Pastor Leandra Anderson were staffing the quilt sale upstairs. Said Bartsch, “We have 47 quilts for sale today. There are 12 of us church quilters who get together and work on them here to help raise money. Twice a year in May and October, we donate 60 or so quilts to Lutheran World Relief, which works out to around 120 quilts per year.” As she spoke, customers were walking up and down the church aisle perusing the offerings.

In the basement was the meatball dinner. On the menu were meatballs, mashed potatoes and gravy, corn, coleslaw, buns and pie. Price of the meal was a free-will offering. Jonie Groth was scooping out mashed potatoes, Kellie Petranek was serving the meatballs, Marilyne Donahue was on corn duty and Brooke Krohn was in charge of the gravy. If they were tired, none of them showed it. Susan Stieglbauer said the potatoes were donated by Mrs. Gerry. The ladies of the church donated the desserts. The corn was donated by Melissa McCornack, who also helped assemble meatballs.

Patron Tim Gassmann brought five of his children. He commented, “The meatballs were fantastic. I love homemade meatballs, so do the kids.”