January 17, 2019
Veteran Raymond Auxiliary volunteer Alma Mendenhall, right, receives congratulations for a half-century of service from her friend and fellow volunteer Lynne Palmer. Her recipe for donuts has become legendary at the annual fundraiser.
Story & photo by Patrick Burles
RAYMOND — Back in the mid-’60s, the Raymond Auxiliary to Health Care Facilities gave $25 to a young woman who’d decided to become a nurse. Little did they know their modest contribution to her career dream would today have such a huge impact on the organization and the entire community.
The student was the daughter of a grateful Alma Mendenhall, who wanted to show her appreciation. So when she heard about an upcoming fundraiser for the auxiliary — a bazaar and bake sale — she saw her opportunity.
“To thank them, I made a batch of donuts for their bake sale,” says Mendenhall. “The next year, they asked for more and more and more. Now we make a thousand.”
Only a few years later, she joined the auxiliary when her youngest son started school. For nearly 50 years she’s been giving back — and continues to attend monthly meetings and help with initiatives — as she approaches her 95th birthday.
Her donuts have become a constant, too, and have proven a popular attraction at the auxiliary’s annual luncheon and bake sale, which over the years has brought in tens of thousands of dollars for the Raymond Health Centre. It’s not unusual to see lineups of people eager to sample her donuts, made fresh that morning.
Mendenhall’s recipe traces back to her childhood, as one she used when making rolls and bread with her mother, and has evolved over time. While many might have bristled at the notion of changing it, she embraced new ideas and friendly suggestions.
“One lady told me, ‘Alma, you need more sugar,’ and another lady says, ‘Alma, you need more butter in your recipe,’ and another lady says, ‘instead of sugaring, dip them in icing sugar and water-dip and glaze them,’” she adds.
“It just developed. Everything everybody told me to do, I did. (Today it’s) a community recipe.”
On the day of the annual luncheon and bake sale, held the first Friday each May, Mendenhall wakes up at 4 a.m. to start work on her dough, then heads to a local church that donates the use of their kitchen.
There, she’s joined by about 30 other women to make 1,000 donuts for the event. Later in the day once the cooking and cleanup is done, she heads over to the agricultural hall, where the luncheon is held, to enjoy a meal with the cleanup crew long after everyone else has gone home.
It doesn’t bother her that she never gets to see the lineup for the donuts and the enthusiasm for her team’s baking. That’s just not her.
“Oh, I don’t like the spotlight,” she says. “This (interview) is hard for me. It’s all community effort. I just started the donuts is all. The fundraiser just evolved — just got bigger and bigger as the town got bigger.”
Looking to share the credit, Mendenhall acknowledges her longtime friend Lillian DeMeester, who joined the auxiliary a few years before she did. The two have developed a close bond over decades of volunteering side-by-side.
“It’s one of my important memories — working in hospital auxiliary,” adds DeMeester. “You felt like you were doing something that was important, worthwhile and you made a lot of good friends.
“I’ll always remember them, they’re part of your life. Good memories, really good memories. You worked with good people with good ideas and good projects. You always had good friends that you remember.”
Both Mendenhall and DeMeester voice concern that the average age of Raymond auxiliary members continues to climb, albeit slowly.
“We’re a few old ladies, and while we’ve got a few younger ones, most of us are old,” says Mendenhall.
Their wish is for more young people to become involved, and adds that all are welcome to attend 2 p.m. meetings every third Wednesday of the month at Raymond Health Centre.
“It helped me immensely, I just have grown from it,” she says. “It’s just made me a better person when I see the support that everybody gives.
“I know people know what the luncheon is, and I know they stand in line for the donuts. I don’t care if they know whether I started them or not — doesn’t matter — I just hope they see what the auxiliary does.”
On Jan. 16, more than a dozen of her volunteer friends dropped by the centre to share a coffee and congratulate her, in the kind of low-key event Mendenhall prefers. One thing is for sure. They definitely see — and continue to appreciate — what she does for her community.
