GEMS Baked Potato Supper draws a large crowd

GEMS Baked Potato Supper, March 2, 2011

Central Reformed Church’s basement was filled to capacity by hungry potato eaters Wednesday evening. With a free will donation, a person could build the baked potato of their choosing. Toppings included hamburger, ham, cheese, broccoli, butter, chili, sour cream and other toppings.

Deb Overbergen helped to coordinate this years event that helps to benefit GEMS. GEMS stands for Girls Everywhere Meeting the Savior.

Overbergen says this event is held annually, with herself being a part of it for the last 20 years or so.

The group plans for 350 guests. They bake the 350 potato’s, then for their toppings they used 11 large cans of cheese sauce, 40 lbs of diced ham, 40 to 50 lbs of hamburger, 7 gallons of chili. Overbergen said her day started at 10 a.m. preparing for the evening, and she hoped that, for her, it would be done by 8 p.m. Volunteers helped to clean up, and put tables and chairs away.

The money raised by the baked potato supper is used to help pay for girls to attend GEMS camp, and their supplies to help GEMS. The girls help by donating a pie or some other dessert.

The crowd started coming before the 5 p.m. start time. By 6:30 visitors were still arriving looking for some supper. Thankfully, because the potatoes were so large, many people only took half of one so there were still some left. By that time, having wrapped and used 300 settings of silverware, they had to start wrapping more.