EXCHANGE: Illinois man bakes family recipe for charity

PEORIA, Ill. (AP) - Tuesday morning, Jerry Caldwell rested for a minute in a chair at the end of the restaurant-quality kitchen in the basement of First United Methodist Church. He wore a floppy white chef's hat on his head and a flour-spackled apron around his middle. A smudge of flour decorated the area on his face beneath his wire-framed glasses between his eyebrows.

He looked the part of a professional baker. Does he think of himself as one?

"I think so," he said. "I'm probably as good as anybody."

One needs a little baker's confidence to pull off what Caldwell has pulled off every Christmas season for 24 years. He bakes hundreds ... no make that thousands, of his family-recipe cinnamon rolls in the church's ovens, sells them (to parishioners mostly) and gives the money to charity. Since his time and the ingredients are all donated, all the proceeds this year will go to the Salvation Army. All of it.

Last year he made almost 2,000 cinnamon rolls and raised $1,464 for charity. Since 1991, the year he started, he has raised almost $15,000, much of it has been given to ministry missions of the church.

He has help. Sally Rhodes ("Rhodes, like the scholar," she said) calls herself the baker's apprentice. She's assisted Caldwell for 20 years. That's a long apprenticeship.

"It hasn't been that long," Caldwell said, cutting a tube of dough, sugar and cinnamon into roll-sized slices.

"Yes it has," Rhodes replied.

They call themselves the Holy Rollers because of their affiliation with First United Methodist.

"He's a member," Rhodes said. "Can't say if it's in good standing."

So what makes these cinnamon rolls special?

"The love we put into them," Rhodes said, with a half-smile. "You don't think we do this for fun, do you?"

The rolls come wrapped in foil in bunches of seven or eight. The cost is $5.

Rhodes makes the rolls for charity at Christmastime, but makes them for family year-round. He also works an outdoor oven at the Fort Creve Couer re-enactment every May and September. He'll even make arrangements to deliver an order fresh from the oven. People can also pick them at the church at 116 NE Perry Ave.

Rhodes and Caldwell have been known to fire up the ovens on Sunday mornings. The smell that wafts upstairs is a lure for sales.

"It's a good way to get people to come to church," Rhodes said.

"Darn tootin,'" Caldwell added.

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Source: (Peoria) Journal Star, http://bit.ly/1OTADss

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Information from: Journal Star, http://pjstar.com