Hanging up their aprons

   The young-at-heart Porch Posse – At Your Service group is hanging up their aprons.

     The ladies, all from the Monticello High School Class of 1969, are calling it quits as they near their 50^th class reunion.

     The Porch Posse, made up of about a dozen or so, began in the summer of 2014. Their mission was to serve at area functions and events such as graduation parties, weddings, community events, fundraisers, funerals, etc. The Porch Posse was always paid for their services, and the money was then donated to local needs.

     Since they started in 2014, the ladies have donated $10,000. Their donations have gone to such causes as the food pantry, HACAP, the Backpack Program, senior dining, nursing homes, Special Olympics, the Austin Smith Foundation, Shop With a Cop, Jones Regional Medical Center’s 3D mammography service, Avenue of Flags, FFA dinners, Chelsey’s Dream Foundation, churches, and to the school nurses with the Monticello school district.

     In addition to money, the Porch Posse group also donated winter clothing to both Monticello and Anamosa schools.

     “We wanted to spread it around,” said Husmann.

     “Our main initiative was to always help the kids,” Siebels said of where their donations ended up.

     The name of the Porch Posse came about as several of the gals were sitting on the front porch at Susan Bohlken’s home. They were reminiscing and chatting and laughing when it was suggested they call themselves the “Porch Posse.”

     “Five years is good,” said Linda Siebels, who become the official record-keeper of the group.

     “We’re getting older and it’s getting harder to work and carry heavy roasters,” added Joan Husmann.

     Pam Jacobs said if they were 10 years younger, they’d keep it going.

     “We have other interests,” said Ginger Eilers. “We all have grandkids, things we want to do one the weekends and Saturday nights.”

     The Porch Posse typically worked at events on the weekends, not just in Jones County, either. In the past five years, they’ve worked at 60 different events, which also included the Monticello School Foundation dinner and church functions.

     After a couple of years, the group had to develop a policy spelling out what tasks they would and would not perform.

     “We just serve food,” clarified Siebels. “We do not set up or tear down or decorate the hall.”

     The group has worked hard over the years. Some of their biggest events were a wedding with 600 guests and a graduation party that served 450.

     “We’ve been asked to serve at multiple events at one time,” said Siebels. That’s when the Porch Posse would divide and conquer. If they needed more hands, they drafted their family members and grandkids.

     With all of the weddings they’ve served at, the gals marveled at the décor, attire and food seen at so many weddings.

     “We got to go to some beautiful weddings without bringing a gift,” joked Siebels.

     On a couple of occasions, the Porch Posse was asked to arrange flowers prior to weddings photos. Again, something that is not included in their contract.

     The ladies reminisced about so many of the events in the last five years, laughing about what went wrong. On one occasion while serving at a wedding in Cedar Rapids, they realized they didn’t have small plates for the cake. That’s when Eilers saved the day and ran to buy some nearby, only to get lost on the way back to the venue.

     “Talk about panic,” laughed Eilers.

     At another wedding, they realized no one had a wine bottle opener or corkscrew to open to the bottles of wine.

     “So we went to a liquor store to buy a cord screw,” recalled Jacobs. “That’s when we started carrying our own emergency kit.”

     While serving at an event in Springville, the water was shut off in the kitchen. So, they all had carry buckets of water into the venue.

     The Porch Posse’s last hurrah will be in early April at a fundraiser gala for the Anamosa library.

     “That’s when we’ll hang up our aprons,” said Siebels.

     “We’re done dressing alike all these years,” joked Husmann of the Porch Posse’s white and black “uniform” attire.

     The Porch Posse all worked well together, each knowing what tasks needed to be accomplished.

     “We did what needed to be done without complaining, for the most part,” joked Eilers.

     “We’re all bossy ladies,” Husmann added, which brought about a round of laughs.

     In an effort to keep their mission and service alive, the Porch Posse would like to see another group pick up where they left off.

     “It takes a core group that’s dedicated and who people can count on,” explained Jacobs. “Once you start adding events to your calendar, you get busy.”

     The ladies said it helps to be organized and to delegate duties.

     “We just went in blind,” said Bohlken of starting out.

     “It helps to keep track of things,” added Husmann.

     While a new group is much appreciated, the name “Porch Posse” ends with the Class of 1969.

     “That’s strictly us,” Siebels said fondly.

     The Porch Posse included: Linda (Nagel) Kahler, Ginger (Barker) Eilers, Linda (Chaplin) Ahlrichs, Susan (Janssen) Bohlken, Jean (Bartels) Haas, Danica (Reyner) Hughes, Pan (Adams) Jacobs, Joan (Schneider) Husmann, Debbie (Eiben) Miller, Linda (Stahlberg) Siebels, Diane (Tedrow) Flannagan, and Donita (Zimmerman) Hageman. The group also had a couple of out-of-state classmates who assisted over the years: Amy (Yeoman) Jepson and Annette (Wahl) Donald.

     If anyone is interested in forming group similar to the Porch Posse, feel free to contact Linda Siebels of Monticello.