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| Contributed photo It’s all hands on deck in a very full (and fun) kitchen when members of the Beta Sigma Pi chapter of Preceptor Tau gear up for their annual Strawberry Shortcake fundraiser right around the Fourth of July. The team, hard at work, is shown here assembling a few of the thousand-plus shortcakes — team members included Irma LaBreck, at front left. |
By Natalie Bazinet
Staff Writer
LIMESTONE — A lot’s changed since a dozen ladies came together in 1973 to form the Beta Sigma Pi chapter of the Preceptor Tau sorority, but the friendships and community service valued by its founding sisters have held fast over the past 40 years as the women and continue making a difference in the small community — and their camaraderie seems pretty fun, too.
In fact, the tight knit group has been together for so long they’re like family at this point.
“We’ve been together since ’73 — that’s a long time for an organization,” said sorority sister Margaret Gillespie. She explained that Preceptor Tau is a service organization similar to a Rotary Club for women.
Limestone has two chapters of Preceptor Tau — Beta Sigma Pi being the first of the two. Organized by a Fort Fairfield chapter of the sorority and, as Gillespie explained, “It was to get young women out of the home and do things in the community.”
And Beta Sigma Pi did both of those things.
With as many as 20 members at one time, the sorority chapter annually donates to worthy causes and promotes community pride — from sponsoring the Little Miss Limestone pageant to purchasing the majority of the tasteful Christmas wreaths that adorn Main Street during the holiday season. The group also donates to the Hope and Justice Project, contributes to the MSSM endowment fund and chips in around town to aid other community service organization — for instance, the group will be helping fund the landscaping of the Limestone Rotary Club’s downtown park project, and earlier this winter they provided the holiday décor to adorn the park’s gazebo.
At each monthly meeting, sorority sisters recite their pledge — which sorority member Carolyn Adams succinctly summarized.
“Our mission is to assist in any way we can to help our fellow man and community,” she said.
As any service organization knows, funding for all the worthwhile projects doesn’t grow on trees; that’s why for the past 22 years or so, the Limestone Beta Sigma Pi chapter has been holding their annual Strawberry Shortcake sale right around the Fourth of July, whipping up huge batches of home-made whipped cream to glob atop oven-fresh biscuits and juicy strawberries.
“We really just have the one big fundraiser,” Adams said, and that fundraiser supports the group’s charitable mission.
“It’s a lot of hard work and a lot of planning — but it’s one day and it’s done,” explained sorority member Charlie Marquis.
With high energy and the sort of timing that comes with being friends for decades, Marquis, Adams and Gillespie were literally finishing each other’s sentences as they described the teamwork and community support that goes into executing a successful Strawberry Shortcake fundraiser — and the happy frustration of a bustling kitchen.
Lots of volunteers from outside the sorority pitch in to make the day successful — the ladies even get help from a few of their mothers, who are still ready to whip cream and cut biscuits at 90 years old.
“We also have husbands that come out and help us with the strawberry shortcake,” Marquis said. “We couldn’t do it without them, I don’t think.”
Marquis said that the group hits the kitchen on Shortcake Day by 7 a.m., and “by 11, we’ve made at least 1,000 to 1,200 shortcakes — and we do our pre-orders first,” Marquis said.
While the delectable fundraiser allows the group to give back considerably to the greater Limestone community, the friendships formed by sorority members serves as a reminder as to why they’re called “sorority sisters” in the first place.
“We kind of look out for each other,” Marquis said.
