Church's ice cream social a sweet Fair tradition

The annual Jackson County 4-H Fair includes many traditions but none may be sweeter than the ice cream social hosted by members of the First Christian Church prior to the start of the fair parade.

For more than 50 years, homemade ice cream and other food has been served by church members at the corner of Fifth Street and Wisconsin Avenue in Holton as a fund-raiser for the church.

A group of ladies at the church, including Karen Harshaw, Ruby Scheidegger, Delores Schlodder, Mary Kimmi and others, organized the first ice cream social, said Kathi Kimmi, who is a member of the church.

“It just started with homemade ice cream for the people who always sat there for the fair parade,” Kimmi said. “It’s the perfect location to sit and watch the parade.”

At its peak, Kimmi said that 36 gallons of homemade ice cream were made for the event. 

“There were so many different kinds of flavors, like cherry cheesecake and lemon chiffon,” she said.

Now, about 25 gallons of ice cream is prepared annually for the event that includes six flavors - pina colada, strawberry, brown bread, vanilla, chocolate and peach. 

For more on this and other stories, please log in to your holtonrecorder.net account and select “July 12, 2023” under “E-Editions.”