Last Updated: Tuesday, August 7, 2007 2:41 PM CDT
Soup helps many area organizations
by Vern Hollister - Correspondent
At five-thirty Sunday morning, about ten Lions Club members and assistants arrived at the Leonard Hess Memorial Park on Silver Lake to begin soup preparations, a standing Laona tradition of 87 years. Soup chairman Brian Connor and a host of other Connor family members, Bob and Tim, and Adam and Luc, and Richard, to name some, along with reliable and usual assistants, Alice Sturzl, Dick Krawze and Bernard Kowalkowski, started the process to fill and to cook soup in two glistening and scrubbed kettles. One held 45 gallons, the other 75 gallons.
The fire beneath cauldrons was lit at 6:21 a.m., and throughout the morning, wood was added to a fire below to boil the soup. Vegetable preparation began in earnest in the nearest picnic area, potatoes the longest and most tedious of the tasks.
Volunteers scrubbed 200 pounds of spuds with a brush and placed the potatoes in water until they were sliced and diced into soup size. In early years, all vegetables would be cut this way; but while the potatoes were being sliced, Sturzl, who said she was just there as a volunteer, unpackaged frozen vegetables and poured them into large pails. Twenty-four bags of carrots, peas, green beans, corn and mixed vegetables entered the black kettles and joined the potatoes. Since the pots were of different sizes, a percentage of the 24 bags went into each.
Krawze added water. On the side sat 48 cans of stewed tomatoes and cream of celery soup and 120 gallons of beef soup base. All this ended up in the two cookers along with twelve boxes of barley.
One of the earliest additions was 30 pounds of soup bone or beef short ribs which a number of Lions Club members cut up, plus large tubes of hamburger, released and crumbled into dispensers before becoming part of the repast. Bags of onions were used, and 20 stalks of celery, and some cabbage, tomatoes and onions donated by a local grower.
When they were finished, the soup to the brims of both pots, Lions Club members stoked the fire and stirred the soup with a large wooden spatula. Serving time was scheduled for noon.
In the meantime, the Rescue Unit sent out runners, and other Lions Club members arrived to ready the cotton candy machine, to prepare the wheel for raffles, and to sell tickets for bratwurst and hamburgers to accompany the soup. Rick Sorenson awarded medals to runners, and Jerry Banie and Gary Zimmer supervised at the volleyball tournament.
"Familes,' Brian Connor said, "got together at the lake." The start from those times has led to a tradition for nearly 90 years and continues. Lions Club members sold raffle tickets which paid off in cash down to ten places. First place received $500, second $250, and on to $10 for winners sixth through tenth. On the reverse side of the raffle ticket, the Club listed what donations they make with the approximate $6,000 it raises after expenses.
The Laona Lions Club gives out scholarships, provides dinner for the elderly, supports the Wisconsin Lions Club camp in Rosholt. They assist locally with the summer recreation program, the Forest County Little League, the Forest County Humane Society, 4-H clubs, and with reading and library programs. They helped purchase Souper Run T-shirts for all the runners, helped buy Christmas lights for Cavour and Newald; and on the Fourth of July provided for the local fireworks.
All this starts with a kettle of soup. Before the official noon-time serving, families or family members formed a line, carried a family-size pan to be filled to accompany the brats and the burgers.
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The line for soup formed just as a light drizzle began to fall. Notice that some waiting for soup hold pots which they will carry back full of soup to waiting family members.
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