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DOWAGIAC — A local church group is inviting community members to bring their Christmas spirit and sweet tooth to their latest fundraising event.

The First United Methodist Church, 326 N. Lowe St., is set to host its Christmas décor sale and cookie walk for the first time since 2019 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 11 to raise funds for charity as well as church renovation projects.

Church member and organizer Darlene Trussell said one of the projects is to repair the church parking lot, which has seen better days.

“It’s going to cost more than we can raise,” she said. “We’re going a little bit at a time.”

The church ladies’ group also will vote for which organization a portion of the proceeds will be donated to. The list of charities the group will choose from includes ACTION Ministries, United Methodist Community House, Cass County Cancer Service, Helping Hands of Cass County, Salvation Army and more.

“It’s just amazing, how it makes you feel when it’s all done,” Trussell said. “It’s a good cause, and the Lord has been with us every step of the way.”

For the cookie walk, church members bake cookies and make candy for attendees to grab and fill a container, which cost $6 for a small container and $8 for a large container. To remain safe and sanitary, the church is asking attendees wear a mask, and will provide gloves for attendees to grab cookies with.

“They can just go down the line and they pick whatever they want,” said. “Usually when they get back to the front, if the container is not bulging, we make them go back to get some more. So, it’s worthwhile.”

Since her husband passed away, Trussell said she has been spending more time at the church, and continues to learn how to get better at organizing these events.

“You always learn something new every year,” she said. “You know what you should do better and what you could do better.”

The church has been collecting items since 2019, so there is an abundance of Christmas decorations and clothing to choose from.

Trussell said the Nov. 20 spaghetti dinner the church hosted raised nearly $1,000 for the church, while their two rummage sales have netted over $2,000 each. The 2019 cookie walk and Christmas sale raised over $1,000, so Trussell said she is hoping the community and church members will turn out in support as they usually do.

“The church members, they’re more of a family,” Trussel said. “It’s been really awesome, when we make an announcement in church, right away there’s an oncoming collection.”