As Spring Break lingers around the corner, members of the First United Methodist Church prepare for their annual mission trip. In order to prepare for this adventure, they partake in four roll bakes each year. On March 14, the youth held their last roll bake before the trip which will take place in two weeks. Senior Ryan Zahn, who has attended a mission trip before, discusses what a typical trip consists of.
“Usually we’re assigned different houses and assigned different chores like landscaping, roofing, construction,” Zahn said. “It’s all based on your preference because you choose what you’d like to work on.”
The numbers of students partaking in FUMC’s mission trip grows each year, as does the number of students helping out with roll bake. Last year there were about 80 total people who journeyed down to South Carolina and this year the number is projected to be even greater.
In order to be able to go on this trip every year, the youth group must raise money through roll bake.
“Basically it’s the way we raise money for our church and for our mission trip that we go on every spring break,” Zahn said.
There are many different jobs one can do at a roll bake.
“At roll bake there are different jobs you can do,” Zahn said. “You can be a part of the rising room [where the dough rises before being cut and baked] you can be the cinnamon mixer or you can be a ‘butterer’ or a tier [which are both part of the cinnamon roll making process].”
There are also jobs like mixing all the ingredients to make the dough, kneading the dough, cutting the dough, manning the ove, and packaging the rolls after they have been made. Due to the fact that there are so many different jobs available, each of the youth can usually find one they enjoy.
“My favorite job would probably be making the dough because it’s really easy and you get a lot of breaks where you can just sit there and go talk to people; you’re not constantly doing things,” senior Cole Lacey said.
Part of roll bake is the waiting process. There isn’t always something that needs to be done, so usually there is plenty of time for goofing off, conversing and having fun as well as getting the work done.
Everyone going on the mission trip is required to work six hours each roll bake. Though the amount of time dedicated to roll bake is long, the work isn’t tedious and everyone finds a way to have a good time.
“Roll bake is really fun; I go to it even though I’m not going on mission trip this year because it’s a lot of fun just to hang out with people there; even the adults are fun to hang out with,” Lacey said.
There are a variety of ways the youth, as well as the adults, make roll bake a fun and memorable experience.
“We play music, we sing along, we throw dough at each other, have flour fights, butter goes everywhere, you have to take a really good shower after but it is fun even though it’s six hours,” Lacey said.
One of the best parts of roll bake is being able to sample the rolls which are baked.
“Everyone loves quality control which is where if people are getting hungry or if one [batch] is too dark or too under-cooked the adults will yell ‘quality control’ and basically it means that anyone in there can come in and eat [the rolls] and it’s for anyone to have which is really nice,” Lacey said.
Even though roll bake is hard work and long hours, the youth enjoy it. Not only those who wish to go on the mission trip partake; even some who don’t plan to go on it help out with roll bake.
“It’s an amazing experience and it’s always fun working with friends,” junior Tristayn Owen said.
Owen attends the First United Methodist Church but he brought one of his friends, junior Griffin Kendziorski, who does not attend FUMC on mission trip last year. FUMC welcomes all who wish to come on mission trip to join, regardless of if they’re members of the church or not.
Roll bakes are an amazing experience complete with fun conversations, youth bonding, singing, baking and plenty of goofing around. They have something for everyone and combine having a great time with working toward a good cause.
