Volunteers are serenaded by Sully Christian School students on Friday, Nov. 3, as they fill, roll, dust with sugar, and shape 4,086 tasty Dutch Letters for the school’s annual fundraiser.
“The more the merrier” certainly proved true during the SCS Dutch Letter Fundraiser marathon day on Friday, Nov. 3. Dozens of volunteers chipped in to make one of the school’s biggest fundraisers of the year a success. Just over $20,000 was raised for the school, according to Sandi De Vries, a member of the Dutch Letter Committee.
“Thank you, thank you, thank you to all the many willing hearts and hands that helped us with our Dutch Letter Fundraiser,” De Vries said.
A whopping 4,086 Dutch Letters were made for the fundraiser, and each letter had to be mixed, rolled, filled, and boxed. A total of 681 boxes — each containing half a dozen Dutch Letters — were sold.
A Dutch Letter is a pastry prepared using a mixture of flour, eggs, and butter for the base. Each pastry is filled with an almond paste, dusted with sugar, and shaped into an “S.”
The tasty treats were pre-sold so organizers knew exactly how many to make last week.
Prior to marathon day on Friday, a total of 146 pans of dough and 96 buckets of filling were prepared. A boxing crew also assembled all the boxes in which the Dutch Letters would be placed.
Starting at 7 a.m. on Friday (marathon day), volunteers worked all day long and into the evening to roll and fill the Dutch Letters, place them in boxes, poke fork holes in the pastries, brush them with egg whites, and sprinkle rock sugar on top. The rolling of the pastries finished at 7:15 p.m. Volunteers successfully finished the Dutch Letters and clean-up by 9 p.m.
In addition to all the SCS supporters who lent helping hands, business donations came from General Mills (flour and sugar), Fremont Farms (eggs), Huyser Dairy (butter), Solo Company (almond paste), and Grinnell and Newton Pizza Ranch (pizza boxes).
The Dutch Letter Committee extends the following thank you to all who contributed to the fundraiser: “We give thanks to God for a wonderful day of working and fellowshipping together! Thank you to all who prayed for this fundraiser, for all of those who gave monetary donations to help cover the cost of our supplies and ingredients, and to all of those who came on rolling day to roll dough and/or filling, assemble the letters, or finish and box the letters. It is all greatly appreciated! May all the glory be given to God!”
