For more than three decades, Sacred Heart women have mixed noodles, memories and plenty of laughter There are two unofficial rules on Noodle Day at Sacred Heart Catholic Church: Watch out for flying dishrags, and once the noodle machine has been blessed by a bishop, the carbs surely cannot count.
The tradition began around 1989 as one of several efforts to help build a much needed parish hall. The women of the Sacred Heart Altar Society rolled up their sleeves and got to work, making noodles and preparing homemade dinners for events in and out of town.
“These women cooked elaborate homemade dinners for anyone and everyone to help raise money for the new hall,” recalled Karon Cornett, a longtime Altar Society member who helped carry on the tradition.
The dinners, noodles and other fundraisers helped make the parish hall possible. It was completed and dedicated in 1993, but thankfully, the noodle making was just getting started.
In those early days, homemade meant plenty of elbow grease. The dough was mixed and kneaded by hand, then fed through three hand cranked noodle rollers, all going at once. It was slow, physical work, but it left plenty of time to catch up on families, share stories and, of course, pray.
There was also good reason for the warning about flying dishrags. Members still remember Barb Beitz tossing hers across the kitchen toward the sink. Anyone who was not paying attention or quick enough to duck risked wearing it.
“They were very dedicated women, and it was a lot of fun,” Cornett said.
The women continued making noodles for parish dinners and began drying and packaging them in individual bags to sell through the church. After wearing out more than their share of household mixers and noodle cutters, they purchased a commercial pasta machine to ease some of the workload.
The machine received an official blessing from Bishop Kemme, who admitted it was the first noodle machine he had ever blessed. From then on, the ladies joked that they were officially making “Holy Noodles,” so the carbs do not really count.
The newer equipment saves time and a few tired arms, but the women still separate the eggs and yolks, measure the ingredients and oversee every batch. The machine may do some of the heavy lifting, but it still has not learned how to tell a good story or clean up after itself.
Every bag of dried noodles carries a label reading, “In memory of Claudine Meng.” Meng served as Altar Society president for more than 25 years and helped shape the ministry into what it is today. Her name honors the women who built the tradition and reminds those now carrying it forward.
The original evening chicken and noodle dinners eventually became Friday luncheons, with advance orders for chicken and noodles by the quart added along the way. On one autumn Friday each year, the parish hall becomes one of Eureka’s busiest lunch spots as local workers, neighbors and parishioners gather for a familiar homemade meal.
For years, the raffle featured handmade quilts donated by Sigrid Denchfield. It has since grown to include cash prizes, a custom fire pit donated by the Dehlinger family and cornhole boards donated by the Allen family. Long after the last dish is washed, the money raised continues working through funeral dinners, religious education, parish and altar supplies, scholarships, senior citizen services and other community support.
The equipment has changed, and some of the women who began the tradition are no longer here to tell their stories. Still, every batch carries something forward: a familiar technique, a remembered name, a shared laugh, prayers said in unison and a Sacred Heart tradition that keeps rolling along.
Pictured above from left to right are: Mary Francis Orth, Margorie Sanburn, Judy Arguelles, Sue Stephenson, Genieve Barnum, Barb Beitz, Betty McIntyre, Claudine Meng and Barbara Decker.
The next Sacred Heart Fall Luncheon is scheduled for Friday, Oct. 30, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Sacred Heart Parish Hall, 514 N. Elm St.
(Article and photo submitted by Michelle Allen)
