Cookbook to coincide with courthouse centennial celebration

CELINA - Mercer County culinary enthusiasts can help support the county courthouse's 100th anniversary celebration in 2023 by submitting recipes for a cookbook to be sold later this year.

The courthouse anniversary committee hopes to obtain 500 or more original family recipes to feature in the publication. The recipes will also stand as a tribute to generations of county families whom have preserved time-honored dishes.

All proceeds from the cookbook will go toward financing a barrage of events set to go down next year. Organizers plan to hold various functions beginning in March to commemorate the county's stately beacon of justice.

"One of the fundraisers we're going to be doing to raise money to help pay for some of the events that we are going to be having in connection with that celebration is to put together a cookbook," said committee chairperson Erin Minor.

Minor, who is also a county assistant prosecutor, said the committee seeks "recipes that have been in your Mercer County family for years."

The committee will accept recipes for appetizers, non-alcoholic beverages, salad, main dishes, sides and deserts, she had said.

"We are going to compile all of those recipes and we're going to include who submitted the recipe for each one," Minor had said, noting images of the courthouse and its prominent features will be interspersed throughout the book. "Our intent is to have those cookbooks available for sale later this year."

People can email recipes to 100years@mercercountyohio.org. or mail them to Mercer County Civic Foundation, Attention: Courthouse Celebration Committee, P.O. Box 439, Celina, Ohio 45822.

The committee aims to host events leading up to and during the official seven-day celebration set for Sept. 11-17, 2023.

Details of the events are still being ironed out, Minor said. However, some of the ideas floated at a meeting earlier this year were a walk to commemorate 9-11, courthouse tours and coffee at the courthouse, where local vendors share their java and compete for best tasting coffee and in the process stimulate conversation between the public and county officials.

Organizers had also said they hope to engage schools and talked about hosting student art and photography displays in the courthouse and holding an essay contest.

The courthouse's 100th anniversary is a huge milestone for the county and a great opportunity to engage residents, Minor had said.

"It's an opportunity for us to showcase our courthouse, show a little about the history of it, educate our community about the importance of the courthouse and functions that it serves and hopefully get some of our younger generation involved and excited about our justice system that exists here in the county," she had said.

The committee has $10,000 in seed money allocated by county commissioners to be held at the Mercer County Civic Foundation. Volunteers, though, will still need to seek corporate sponsorships and hold fundraisers to pull off a celebration worthy of the building's 100th anniversary, some volunteers said.