As far as fund-raisers go in Marengo County you just can’t beat barbecue. Each year, communities like Jefferson and Thomaston use the barbecue pit as a means of raising money for community projects.

Jefferson held its annual community barbecue on Saturday and had a strong turnout from midday into the evening. The feast was hosted by the Jefferson Community Club.

“We organized our Community Club in 1953,” said Lucretia Norris. “For a couple of years, we had fish fries, but that was so much trouble with the last-minute cooking. So, someone suggested, ‘Well, why don’t we have a barbecue?’ So, we’ve been having a barbecue for over 35 years.”

Over the years, the money raised by the barbecue has gone toward projects for the community.

“We use it for whatever is needed,” Norris said. “One year, we helped buy choir robes for our churches, and we helped put a fence around a cemetery one year.

“We paid dues at first, $2 a year. That was all the money we had when we started, but all we had (to pay) was the light bill, though! Then, we grew, and we don’t pay dues any more. This is our money-making thing. We meet once a month and have a covered-dish supper, and at Christmas, we have a Christmas meal: turkey and ham with a Christmas tree.”

“We have two or three projects a year that we go through,” said Community Club president Andy Morgan.

“We have this barbecue, several suppers and sometimes, we have cake sales.”

For several communities throughout the county, it is difficult to raise money for community projects, but the meat of the funding for Jefferson comes from its barbecue.