The following is a history and celebration of the MVB written by Joan Bogart.
In 2019, we celebrated 45 years of the Mapleton Church of Christ (Disciples) Bazaar and the people that made it a success. It was also the last year of the bazaar, however we continue to make pies, mincemeat and Christmas planters that are sold throughout the year.
The MVB Bible Class was started as a testament to a woman of the community who taught adult Sunday School class from 1954 to 1980. She was beloved by her students and when Mabel Violet Brown wished to go to the Holy Lands her class of young women decided to make her dream a reality. Fundraising started with a coffee break and food sale at the home of Kathy Robinson, Florence Stover prepared T.V. dinners with the help of the Sunday school class, and Reverend Nethercott showed pictures of the Holy Land. A lingerie party was held at the home of Margaret McNeil and Shirley Robinson held pie bees and sold a doll which proved to be a profitable success. A fundraiser that was supposed to take a year, was able to raise $725 in six weeks. Those pie bees was the beginning of the pie making that still is very popular today.
The first official bazaar was held December 4th 1974.
At that time we had a group of women who made the pies Robina Finch, Florence Stover, Aleta Thomson and many helping hands. Another group led by Shirley Robinson who spearheaded the crafts and Rosemary Goble who was in charge of sewing. The sewing of T Shirts and pajamas was a big success, we were familiar with the “Stretch and Sew” technique and we met as a group to cut and paint and sew these items.
Over the years many orders were filled and we also made matching baseball shirts for our local Lyons ball teams.
Marjorie Light was our knitting organizer and for many years was in charge of the knitting table. She contributed to our knitting table until 2018 when she passed away at the age of 92 years old.
Betty Stover was also a dedicated sewer making Barbie Doll clothes and aprons for many years, her aprons were so popular that people returned year after year to purchase a new one.
We had many of the same people doing the same jobs for many years, Marilyn Manning was our convener, Pat Thomson the treasurer, Joan Bogart secretary, Rosemary Goble keeping archivist notes and Shirley Faulds took over the getting of supplies for pie days.
In 1977 we started serving muffins and continue to do so as a chance to share a time of fellowship and enjoy a cup of tea or coffee.
We have always had ladies that ran the kitchen preparing the tea, coffee and muffins the day of the event, in the early years it was Janet Hiepleh and Esther Wackley. Today and for many previous years it is Pat Thomson, Eleanor Stover and helpers.
Our pie makers today are Shirley Faulds, Beth Millard, and Pat Thomson, those that help are Lesley Moncrief, Joan Bogart, Janet Anstead, Sarah Faulds and Mary Appleford.
One of the projects was gathering our recipes and we produced cook books featuring, muffins, cupcakes, casseroles, rhubarb and soups and salads.
More recently we have been making potted planters at the home of Lesley Moncrief.
Jean (Evert) Fentie prepares bows and balls and all members gather greenery for the pots.
Some of the more memorable times are the humorous ones.
I remember the lunch when we had pot luck and everyone had brought dessert. We laughed a lot.
Jack McCallum would sell our Attic Treasures, he had a way of selling people items they really didn’t want or need.
There was the year we had an ice storm and Aleta Thomson slipped off the road, dumping her pies for the bake table unto the floor of her car.
A farmer caught one of the ladies pruning the roadside trees for the greenery planters.
The number of vacuums we have purchased over the years.
Reg Bogart was always first in line to purchase one of Lowanna McCallum’s raisin pies.
Our fundraising over the years has contributed to installing windows in the church basement, storm windows, sending our kids to church camp, helping out families in need, several vacuums, hot water heater, dishes, book shelves, refrigerator, freezers, maintenance and twice monthly cleanings of the church. Over the years we have contributed over $100,000 to several charities, items of need and the maintenance of our country church. However the biggest reward is the fellowship that we gain whenever we meet.