Vine Grove Women's Club compiling cookbook

The Vine Grove Women’s Club is cooking up a new plan to raise money for scholarships and donations, attract new members and celebrate the club’s 80th anniversary.

Amber Coulter

BETSON

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The club is compiling recipes for a cookbook to sell to Vine Grove residents and visitors. Club members hope to have the book ready for sale during the Vine Grove Autumn Daze festival in September.

The book also is expected to include pictures and snippets from Vine Grove history, such as photos of past club presidents and the presidents’ favorite recipes donated by their families.

Club members and city residents can submit recipes by e-mailing Donna Betson, club president and Vine Grove City Council member, at djbetson@bbtel.com by April 1.

Betson said she hopes that accepting recipes from community members will demonstrate the club’s close connection to the community and encourage new women to join.

Proceeds from the books, which are expected to cost about $15, will go toward annual scholarships given by the club.

The money also will go toward organizations and causes supported by the club, such as sending Valentine’s Day cards to veterans, placing wreaths on veterans’ graves in December and donating to the SpringHaven domestic violence shelter in Elizabethtown, Betson said.

“We’re always trying to do things to help the city because it’s our community,” she said. “We’ve got a good community.”

Long-time club member Jean Scheible and club Vice President Betty Rose Jones both said they have enjoyed cooking ever since their mothers taught them how, and they’re looking forward to sharing recipes with neighbors.

Scheible, whose recipes in the book will include fresh strawberry cake and homemade noodles, said she also learned a lot from cooking for four children.

“You have to learn to minimize cost and produce lots of food,” she said.

Scheible said she enjoys passing on that wisdom and her love of cooking.

“Cooking is able to make use of your noggin and produce things that are sometimes surprising, and I just like to share,” she said.

Jones doesn’t know yet what she will submit for the book, but the macaroni and cheese made from her mother’s recipe that her grandchildren often request might be on the list.

Jones said she’s excited about the opportunity to help the club because of the good it accomplishes in the community.

Club members also plan to raise money for scholarships and donations by designing a Christmas ornament and producing copies to sell possibly at Autumn Days and definitely during the A Dickens of a Christmas celebration in December.

Betson said the club might turn the ornament sale into an annual fundraiser.

She said club members had to find new fundraising opportunities because it has become increasingly difficult during recent years to find families willing to open their homes for a tour of area homes decorated for Christmas.

Some families are worried about security and possible mess and inconvenience that might come from letting strangers tour their homes as part of the club’s traditional fundraiser, Betson said.

“We wanted to make sure that we could continue to give to the causes we want to support,” she said. “We want to continue to give back to the community.” 

Amber Coulter can be reached at (270) 505-1746 or acoulter@thenewsenterprise.com.