It takes many people to make our Smorgasbord dinner successful. Some duties are completed before the event even starts and many workers are needed that night.
29 different committees work to plan and execute this beautiful dinner. Each committee needs a chairperson and at least one additional person. Many groups need multiple workers to be successful.
Below is a list of all the workers needed.
To sign up for your favorite job, please call Maureen Hams at 253-2267, she has already signed up to be in charge of the workers list.
The chairpersons for the 2008 Smorgasbord are Bobby Aakhus, Vicki Duden, and Sheila Reich. You can sign up by calling any of them also.

 Committees that do their work before the day of the event:
• Meatballs - 8 people making meatballs and freezing them the week or so before
• Potato Peeling - 8 people the Friday before
• Aprons- 1 person to make sure the aprons are ironed before the dinner, then make sure they are washed and hung afterwards
• Decorating - 5 people to decorate the day before
• Food List - 1 or 2 people to figure out what everyone should bring/donate
• Lefse- At least 6 people per group, two groups making Lefse before the event
• Lutefisk- 5 people willing to cook Lutefisk Friday
• Gravy for meatballs - 1 or 2 people to make the gravy to add to the meatballs
• Publicity- someone to put together the flyers and media information and get-it out

 Committees that do their work the day of the event: (Chairpersons will still have a few things to do before the Smorgasbord to be ready.)
• Beans — 1 person
• Bread Room - 6 workers to keep the trays of sweets and breads full
• Candy Room - at least one adult to assist the youth with this project
• Car Parking- 3 workers to help park cars
• Clean-Up - At least 10 workers to put the church back in shape for service in the morning.    This is done after the dinner so doesn't start until 7:30 or so.
• Coffee & Ice - 2 workers to be sure the coffee is made and water pitchers are full
• Dishwashers- this takes two shifts of people with 6 to 8 people on a shift
• Greeters - 2 people to welcome people and thank them for coming
• Lutefisk Casserole-2 people to put the casseroles together and bake them
• Mashed Potatoes- 2 to 4 people with strong backs that can lift the pots of potatoes and get them mashed
• Meal Delivery - 4 people to take meal orders, fill trays and deliver meals
• Meatballs night of - make sure the meatballs and gravy get warmed up
• Rommegrot- 1 worker to warm and serve
• Salad Room-two people to continually fill the relish trays and salad bowls
• Smorgasbord Table- ten workers to serve the meal
• Waiters/Waitresses- two shifts of workers with 15 people on a shift
• Sot Suppe- 1 worker to warm and serve
• Tickets- 2 workers to sell tickets

^{This is the 60th anniversary of Bethany Church which had it's beginning with a few members back in 1948,,.and remarkable it is also the 60th anniversary of the very first Smorgasbord held at Bethany.}

When the church was organized we were blessed to have a wise, energetic and dedicated leader who began our first Ladies' Aide. Her name was Bertha McElwee, a retired school teacher and the wife of Neil McElwee, the local mortician. His funeral parlor was located in the back part of Hunt's Hardware, which is now Thompson's.

We started out as a Mission Church and especially in those days the Ladies' Aide was often depended upon for help with finances. Bertha had an idea that since our newly formed church had a Scandinavian background we should serve the typical foods and invite the public. Ethnic backgrounds were more defined then and Red Lake Falls had mostly French and German folk living here. We hoped for adventuresome people to try a different type of food.

The first Smorgasbord was held in the basement of our little church, which is now a home on Main Street. It was held the first part of December and our menu included foods often served during the Christmas season. It included all or similar items that we will be serving in 2008. However, we had a larger menu than now, and lutefisk was an entirely different process than today. We could only purchase it in big slabs that still reeked of lye and had to be soaked at least 24 hours before we began to skin and debone it. I remember we always did that part the evening before the Smorgasbord and we would work well into the morning hours. We then served it hi the typical way, boiled with drawn butter. Also on our menu was Potet Klub which was a raw ground potato dumpling cooked in ham broth in which we had prepared our boiled ham. We had several salads, one being the Scandinavian Herring Salad with items like pickled beets and onions added, potato salad and various fruit salads beautifully decorated.

This was all accomplished by the 8 women that made up the Ladies' Aide over a matter of several days. I remember I asked Bertha how we few women would be able to serve all this in a timely manner. She said, "Well, I will ask my Mother and sister and a niece to come help us and you could ask your mother and sisters too. We did and they came!!!!

We served exactly 100 adults charging $1.00 apiece with kids eating free...and so our profit was $100 as all food was donated. We were overjoyed and counted it as a great success. Another interesting difference in today's Smorgasbord was that there weren't any men in the kitchen. Remember it was 1948....women were the ones that did that type of work....and since it was a different time for women I am signing my name as married women did in those days..,..Mrs, Walter Seeger