| Oyster feasts sustain tradition of fundraising, fellowship BY MELISSA LAUBER UMCONNECTION staff 
In the ocean, oysters have the almost magical power to transform sand to pearls. Within the Baltimore-Washington Conference, oysters conjure up thousands of dollars for ministry. Few people in The United Methodist Church outside of this region know about the tradition and fundraising powers of ham and oyster dinners, or sometimes turkey and oyster dinners. These events are red-letter days on the calendars of many area churches from November to March. Mayo UMC in Edgewater, near Annapolis, and Lisbon UMC in Montgomery County, raise almost $4,000 from their dinners. Damascus UMC clears as much as $8,000 in one all-you-can-eat oyster afternoon. But staging these events is not for the weak of heart. Oysters, for example, are bought, already shucked, by the gallon. Churches buy anywhere from 24 to 60 gallons of oysters for up to $69 a gallon, said Esther Samakouris of Damascus UMC. Some churches do smaller fundraisers just to raise the money for the coveted main dish. When the oysters are delivered, trained church volunteers become oyster patters. They drain the liqbwc_superuser from the jar of oysters, and dip the oysters in an egg and milk mixture, which serves as a paste. The patters then take up a handful of cracker meal in one hand and an oyster in the other. The oysters are patted back and forth, from hand to hand, until theyre coated, then placed on trays and refrigerated while they await the deep fryer. There are about 300 oysters in a gallon, said Charles Pell of Mayo UMC. Its a tremendous amount of work, but its a way to get to know each other. They sit still, pat and talk. Its really a bonding process, especially if you do it year after year, said Nora Riley of Lisbon UMC. While the oysters take center stage in the preparations, there are also kitchens to be scoured, several hams, potatoes and vegetables to be cooked, and tables to be set. The United Methodist Women almost always provide the brownies, Key lime pies and pineapple upside-down cakes at a separate bake table. The churchs youth or United Methodist Men assist with the pouring of drinks. To get all this accomplished, each church, over the years, has developed its own system, with several people doing the same tasks for more than a decade. At Damascus UMC, oyster dinners were old news, when Samakouris started working on them 35 years ago. Ben Matthews of Mayo UMC has been helping coordinate the dinners for 20 years. He believes the dinner prep work is a ministry. Its fellowship, he said. Weve built a tradition filled with lots of laughter, love and fun. But whats the draw of oysters? At Mayo UMC the women taking money at the door debated just that. They determined it was impossible to describe the taste, although they agreed that oysters dont taste like chicken. The people eating the oysters also had a hard time putting the taste sensation into words. Salty, said one man. Sweet and quiet and unforgettable, said a woman dining alone. They taste like the ocean, said another diner; yet another pronounced them A-1, tip-top, excellent. Pell, who has been frying oysters at Mayo for 12 years, sampled his first oyster at this years dinner. Although he said hed prefer the ham, Pell concluded, You either love them or you hate them. And if you love them, youll never get enough. | 
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