LAURINBURG — The ladies of the Pilot Club of Laurinburg were relaxing in the American Legion Post 50 building on Thursday about 15 minutes before their second annual plate sale fundraiser was scheduled to kick off.
Truth is, they’d already put in numerous man-hours of work — selling tickets and setting up for the plate sale.
“We pre-sold about 600 plates well before we even arrived,” said Rebecca Brooks. “That’s going to be a good majority of our sales.”
Rick’s Catering provided the food for the fundraiser, consisting of chicken, barbecue, beans, slaw, rolls and brownie — and tickets were sold by club members for $8, though there were also some who just dropped by Thursday and paid at the door.
“We sold about 780 plates last year, and we are hopeful to do the same or better this time,” Brooks said. “The more we can sell, the more we can give back to the community.”
The annual plate sale is one of three major fundraisers held by the club. They also hold a yard sale/bake sale in September, along with a cookie sale in November and December.
The Pilot Club of Laurinburg uses the money raised by the trio of fundraisers for a number of community interests, including for a Dementia Support Group, to support special needs classes in the schools and to award local scholarships to Anchor Club members.
Thursday’s plate sale was the culmination of effort by about 30 Pilot Club members.
“It takes every one of them to pull this off,” Brooks said. “It’s a lot of work.”
That was evident once the group completed its break and began putting plates together. Using an assembly line method, the group spent the next couple of hours assembling either chicken or barbecue plates at a somewhat frantic pace, and those tagged with the responsibility to supply the drive-through with plates or make deliveries to area businesses took those plates as fast as they became available.
The Pilot Club of Laurinburg is always on the lookout for new members. Anyone interested can call President Betty Barrett at 910-610-7550 for information.
W. Curt Vincent can be reached at 910-506-3023 or cvincent@laurinburgexch.wpenginepowered.com.
