'Holy Rollers' keep sweet tradition Church women have been baking, selling holiday cookies since '63.

MISHAWAKA -- "You've gotta have the touch," pastor Dennis Ingle of Albright United Methodist Church said as he carefully helped mix the sticky green dough that would eventually become a Christmas tree-shaped cookie.
For nearly 50 years, a group of about 25 women has been meeting at the church Monday and Tuesday mornings in the fall to bake batches upon batches of Christmas cookies to sell to the community.
The women establish an assembly line of sorts, as different groups are responsible for mixing, rolling and pressing the dough into different shapes. The eight different varieties of cookies are then frosted and put into boxes for the lucky customers to bring home to their families.
They call themselves the "Holy Rollers," a small group of women with an important job: rolling cookie dough into a thin, bakeable layer.
"I baked when I was young, but I'm not young anymore," Virginia Craig said.
Fellow Holy Roller Betty Reaker added, "The fellowship is great."
Some are in charge of making buckeyes, delicious peanut butter balls dipped in chocolate; others are responsible for the Mexican wedding cakes.
The group spends several hours each Monday and Tuesday morning for six weeks in the fall preparing cookies for purchase. Chairwoman Judy Mark says the group can pack up to 40 boxes of these delectable treats a day.
The tradition began in 1963 when a women's group at the church started meeting to bake cookies and pack them together for the community.
"We started doing it at the church because we were getting more orders," said Iris Walker, one of the original bakers.
The cookies' popularity was fueled by the presence of such large manufacturing companies as Uniroyal and Dodge nearby.
"Of course, those companies have closed so our base is not as large as it used to be," Walker said.
At the peak of their production in 1989, the women at Albright United Methodist baked 4,539 cans of cookies in just six weeks. Walker said this measured out to 2,700 pounds of flour, 780 pounds of granulated sugar, 1,710 pounds of block margarine and 210 dozen eggs.
That's a lot of cookies.
"We need to build orders back up," Mark said.
The cookies have another purpose besides satisfying that sugar craving.
"We make money for things around the church, the food pantry and other things to help people in the community," Mark said.
People can purchase two pounds of cookies for $10 and 20 buckeyes for $18. A pound of peanut brittle can also be purchased for $6. Those looking to place an order can call the church office at 574-259-1975.
 

By MADELINE STONE South Bend Tribune November 13, 2011