Held on June 27 in conjunction with Limestone’s famed Fourth of July festivities
LIMESTONE — One of Limestone’s Fourth of July festivities is deliciously celebrating its milestone anniversary this summer, and the region is more that welcome to come find out just how good the annual Maine Preceptor Tau Sorority’s annual Strawberry Shortcake Festival is after 20 years of experience and thousands upon thousands of shortcakes.
Aroostook Republican photo/Natalie De La Garza
It takes a team of skilled volunteers to make the Maine Preceptor Tau Sorority’s annual Fourth of July Strawberry Shortcake Festival a delicious success. Shown here during the festival back in 2009 are, from left, front row: Brenda Curry, Margaret Gillespie, Carlotta Marquis, Mary Webster and Joanne Huntress. Back row: Lynn Voisine and LuAnn Watt. This year’s Strawberry Shortcake Festival takes place on Thursday, June 27 from 11 a.m. until 1 p.m. at the Masonic Hall on Main Street in Limestone.
“Something we like to boast about is the fact that we use homemade biscuits and real whipped cream,” said sorority member Jane Griffeth, because while many of the other strawberry shortcake fundraisers in the region us homemade biscuits, few if any outside of Limestone mix up their own whipped cream.
Going that extra mile, however, means whipping up enough cream for about 1,200 strawberry shortcakes each year – and the desserts don’t stick around for long. Between the hours of 11 and 1 on Thursday, June 27, the sorority will delivers about 800 pre-ordered shortcakes with the remaining 400 staying at the Limestone Masonic Hall for those who wish to drop by for the iconic summer treat.
“We get a lot of community support on this … and it’s’ a fun activity as part of our Fourth of July festivities,” Griffeth said, mentioning how much fun the group has getting together for their shortcake assembly line – starting at 7 a.m. the morning of the fundraiser.
“We have quite a few volunteers that help us get though the assembly process and once we get that going, and start our delivery process, it goes fairly smoothly,” Griffeth said. “We work hard at it, but it’s fun and it’s a good time.”
Having perfected the event for the past 19 years, their upcoming 20th anniversary of strawberry shortcakes is sure to be another tasty success that will fundraise the group’s service projects for the coming year – donating to organizations like the Hope and Justice Project, the Francis Malcolm Science Center, the Maine School of Science and Mathematics , and the library, to name a few.
But when the sorority’s Limestone chapter first started in 1974, they were holding five or six fundraisers a year. It wasn’t until Florence Young brought the idea of the strawberry shortcake festival to Limestone that the group was able to reduce the frequency of its fundraising.
“We did five or six projects throughout the year, which would take a lot of time,” Griffeth said. “We decided that if we could come up with one big project, we would do other things aside from raising money.”
Pair that with the desire to contribute to Limestone’s famed Fourth of July celebration and to provide an opportunity for the community to come together around the summery dessert, and the Strawberry Shortcake Festival was born.
Even though all the sorority members lend a hand with the fundraiser, Griffeth credited their family and friends for chipping in during the “all hands on deck” event.
Understanding that not everyone’s schedules permit a quick jaunt into Limestone for shortcake, volunteers are able to deliver five or more desserts to Limestone and it’s commerce centre, Caribou and Fort Fairfield, too.
The desserts are $3.50 each, and orders can be placed by calling Griffeth at 325-4018, Carolyn Adams at 325-4931 or Carlie Marquis at 325-8870.
