The Great Tomale Sale of 2010

Make sure you check the list off upcoming fundraisers. There have been some changes and additions, so check it out.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

You will have to understand, up until a few weeks ago I did not know what a tomale was. I had heard the term. I knew it was food. But as a Scotch-Irish kid from New York, I thought Taco Bell was Mexican Food. So when one of the parents suggest a tomale sale for a fundraiser I didn't blink. The phrase "ignorance is bliss" seems to apply to this situation. Well, I learned. while the sale was a great success, we earned every penny. Though it was allot of work, the families of the players got to know each other allot better.

Making tomales is a large undertaking, really huge. Understand, we made over 6,000 tomales. Our tomales were made with pork. So our ordeal began with purchasing hogs and roasting them. One family took on this task. Old School's, one of our full backs (defense), mom, dad, and extended family spent days cooking hogs. Once the meat is cooked, then the you have to pull it off the bone. Another initial step is cutting and cleaning red peppers. Lets just say I came home one night from work to a kitchen full of people cutting and cleaning peppers. I joined in. The process is not difficult, the hard part is keeping the peppers and or the pepper juices out of your eyes. Cutting these peppers is like cutting unions. Make sure you do not rub your eyes, painful. Anything you eat for hours after cutting peppers is flavored with peppers. What fun.

Then we had to rely on the grandmothers of Old School and Dallas. These ladies have been making tomales for longer then I have been alive. Old School's grandmother seasoned the meat using the peppers and her secret recipe. When I say secret, I mean no one is allowed in her kitchen when she does it. Dallas's grandmother made the meseca. Meseca is a dough made with corn meal that forms the breading around the meat. At this point let me apologise. Again, I have no expereince with authentic mexican food. I am trying to explain this process despite my ignorance of the topic. So if anyone of hispanic discent reads this post, please forgive me. I am doing the best I can.

When making tomales, you also have to get and prepare corn husks. Once the corn husks have been washed and seperated, you spread the meseca onto the corn husks. Again, my ignornace will show. When you spread the meseca you have to totally cover the bottom two thirds of the husks. When spread, the meseca must not be too thin or too thick. Lets just say it is an art. I watched women spread meseca over the husk with a spoon in seconds. This is not a skill I was able to acquire. While I have never made tomales, I have spent years either putting up drywall and mudding the walls or fixing holes in walls. Meseca is about the same consistancy as drywall mud. So I got a plastic puddy knife (I used a new one) and made like I was working on walls. To my surprise, it worked really well. As it turns out, it works better if you break the handle off. By the end of the fundraiser, broken puddy knives out numbered spoons two to one.

Finally, you add the meat, fold the tomales, steam them in huge pots, and you have tomales. I finally tasted my first tomale. It was good. We sold over 6,000 tomales. This was by far our largest and most successful fundraiser to date.

This fundraiser also reminded me of the good in people. This is strange to say, I know. This fundraiser was so big that to pull it off we needed the help of people beyond the families of our players. Not only did extended family members help out, but friends of families and their families donated hours to make this fundraiser possible. People with no kids on the team, took off time from work to make our success possible. Simply put, without their generosity, we would have not succeeded. But succeed we did. We made over three thousand dollars in profit on this fundraiser. In so doing, we took our first big step in raising the money we need for the trip to Florida.

Thank you to all the people donated their time and effort. The following is a list of some of those people: Susan Runkel, Barb Smith, Santos and Jody Guerrero, Neal and Rae Schilling, Francisco Granados, Marisol Vasquez, Juan, Edna, and Clarissa Vaquez, Pat Nolan, Billie Sue, Caleb, and Marjorie Mae Jones, Kay Renelds, Kathy Homola, Jennifer Conklin, Marty Skidmore, Judy Chadwick, Tom and Pam Stermer, Estella Carrizales, Trisha Somerville, and Monica Wilson. Again to all who helped us, thank you.

Several businesses also helped the team with donations of money and the ingredients needed to make the tomales. It takes allot of stuff to make over 6,000 tomales. The donations from these businesses kept the costs of this fundraiser low. We would like to thank the following businesses:

The Acapulco Restaurant in Paw Paw, Supermercado Guanajuato in Wyoming, Bailey Terra Nova Farms in Schoolcraft, and Simply Meats in Schoolcraft.

That was the Great Tomale Sale of 2010. I had my first tomale ever. And after serving 6,ooo tomales to people, if I never see another tomale, it will not be too soon. The parents have formed a support group: the Chingalinga Tomaledoras (damn tomale makers). We are closer as a team. We raised approximately $3,000.00.

Please checkout out list of upcoming fundraisers. If you would like to send a donation to the team please send it to: AYSO Region 250, 315 North Street, Paw Paw, Michigan 49079. Please make check payable to AYSO Region 250. Also, indicate on the check the U-10 team so your donation goes to the correct account.

Fundraising

Not only have the Crushers been practicing since September 2009, we have also been trying to raise money to pay for the trip to West Palm Beach, Florida. Since we are from Michigan, the trip is a major expese. As I said in a previous post, the Coed Crushers are representative of AYSO. Not only do we have kids with wildly different skill levels, we also have families from different socio-economic backgrounds. There are families with kids on the team that can afford to make the trip, between $1,200 and $1,500 per child. But, there are also families who will not be able to make the trip if we fail fundraise enough money. With the economy in Michigan being what it is, fundraising is going slowly.

The Crushers have held many fundraisers to date. The most successful fundraiser was leaf raking last fall. I have attached a few pictures of the kids hard at work. We also held a carnival last fall on the opening day of Region 250's soccer season . While it was fun, it did not raise the amount of money we hoped. We partnered with another team to seek contributions from local companies. The parents of the players ran a concession stand at the AYSO soccer fileds each weekend last fall, and will continue it in the Spring. Parents even showed up to sell hotdogs and other items at the AYSO picture night. The team hosted an afternoon of bowling at one of our local bowling alleys over Christmas Break. The kids and their families have been working hard to reach their goal. While we have come about half way there since beginning last August, we are not close to being halfway to our fundraising goal.

As I have said in the past, these kids are fighters. We have several fundraisers planned in the near future. We will be hosting a soccer tournament for our region in June. We are selling tamales. We will be having an enchilada dinner. We will have a spring flower sale and garage sale. How can we forget the car washes and bakes sales? If you would like to see a list of upcoming fundraisers please click on to the Fundraiser Section. As I wrote in the first post, one of the goals of this blog is to encourage people to help our team. If you would like to make a donation please send it to:

Coed Crushers

315 North Street

Paw Paw, Michigan 49079

Please makes checks payable to: AYSO Region 250. Please note on the check that the donation is for the U-10 National Team so it is deposited in the correct account. Anyone who makes a donation will be listed as one of our sponsors on this blog. Donations are tax deductible. On behalf of the kids and their families, I would like to thank anyone reading this for your time. And thank you to anyone generous enough to donate to our cause. If we are able to make this trip and compete in the tournament, I am sure it will be an experience the kids never forget.

Make sure your check the bottom of the blog page to see the people who have helped the Crushers.

As always, Go Crushers.