Every few months the members of American Legion Thomas R. Mackin Post 20 get together to cook hundreds of quarts of Brunswick stew for a fundraiser.

The post is now taking orders for its Labor Day stew sale, which benefits many of the community projects they are involved in each year.

“We have about three sales a year. It is our main fundraiser that we do, so it is pretty important to us,” said Charles Friday, who serves as stewmeister. “We have great support and participation at the post from the members to prepare the stew and get it all ladled up into the cups and ready to go and delivering it. We’ve had a great group of people that have been doing this.”

The stew is sold by the quart for $8 and is delivered to customers.

“If they call their order in … we will actually deliver it to their homes and residence or their place of business, so they don’t even have to come out there [to the post] and pick it up,” Friday said.

The stew sale is the post’s biggest fundraiser.

“We have several projects that we support that this money goes to. It doesn’t just go to the upkeep of the post,” Friday said.

“We send young men and women to Boys and Girls State each year. We support the Wounded Warriors project, and we also look out for any of the veterans who are here in Selma and Dallas County. We have some that are homebound that we look in on, and we have others that are in nursing homes that we try to make sure that their extra needs are provided and little personal things that makes their life more pleasant.”

Friday, who is in charge of making sure the stew is cooked and served right, said the members enjoy the cooking process, which takes all week.

“The guys they like to sit out there and stir the stew because it does have to be constantly stirred the whole time it is cooking,” Friday said. “They enjoy that. They can sit around and stir the stew and chew the fat with one another and tell old war stories, and they just have a good time doing it. It is just a real nice fun project for us.“

The sale will end Labor Day weekend. Orders can be placed by calling 327-8724 or 412-4781. All sales are by advanced order.