ORFORD — Two long tables, decorated with cheery red hearts and set in the middle of Orford’s United Congregational Church, were already packed with homemade cookies, pies and plastic containers full of chocolate by the time Ann Green arrived Saturday morning.
“I’m not a great baker,” Green, of Orford, said with a laugh and she placed her “lemon surprise kisses” on one of the tables. “But the church is struggling. … I thought I needed to support them.”
Green was one of many people who came out Saturday morning to show some love at the Valentine’s Day pie and bake sale, the church’s first full-fledged effort to generate money selling sweets. Organizers, who spent Friday morning cooking blueberry, rhubarb and blackberry pies, decorated the room with bright red hearts in line with the holiday, and attendees gave support by donating food and buying baked goods.
But despite the upbeat atmosphere and colorful decor, the event was also a difficult reminder of what the church has had to sacrifice amid the pandemic.
“This is called COVID,” Kathy Sanborn, the head of the church’s fundraising committee, said Saturday. She explained that the church, which has been a staple in the Orford community since the late 18th century, once got most of its revenue from fundraising events, especially by hosting regular breakfasts and dinners for the community.
“With COVID, we had to switch gears,” she said.
Sanborn and Eva Daniels, the church moderator, said that when the pandemic broke out, the church stopped hosting most events, including the fundraising meals. They also canceled most church services as well as yoga, ballet and other classes that were once hosted in the building. They tried to save money on electricity costs by keeping the lights off, and the minister and church treasurer both declined to take a salary in order to keep the church afloat.
“It’s been hard for us financially,” Daniels said.
Another hardship has been the lack of social contact with the community, though she said church officials try to check in with older members of the congregation as often as possible.
“They miss coming in,” Daniels said, explaining that the weekly service would be a place for community members to have contact, and catch up. “It’s been hard.”
Several months into the pandemic, church officials, faced with a financial burden, started selling pies and “grab-and-go meals” Daniels said. The popularity of the events led them to plan Saturday’s larger bake sale.
Daniels added that, in addition to raising money for the church, the pie and bake sales have given the 30-person congregation and other members of the Orford community a rare moment to see each other again.
“It’s wonderful. People are so thrilled,” Daniels said, adding that even community members who don’t attend the church have come out in droves to buy baked goods and support them. “The church really is part of the community.”
That was reflected Saturday in many of the people who stopped by to buy plastic bags of cookies and boxes of pie.
“I like to support local churches and businesses. … People are struggling,” Fairlee resident Lenore Brown said as she picked up bags of date-filled and lemon cookies. She added that there’s another reason to buy the church pies: “They’re really good.”
Harry Osmer, an Orford resident who stopped by the church to buy two bags of chocolate chip cookies Saturday, said the decision to support his local church was easy.
With a bright smile, he gestured to Daniels and Sanborn and said, “I love these ladies.”
Anna Merriman can be reached at amerriman@vnews.com or 603-727-3216.