Do you know what smelt is? How about a brat? Or a Hmong eggroll?
If you’re married to a funeral director in Wisconsin, you have likely been served all three…this week.
Yesterday, my family enjoyed our dinner at a Smelt Fry to benefit the local Gun Club. We handed over a couple of bucks and filled our plates with roast beef, chicken, the best mashed potatoes my daughter has ever tasted, some sort of chocolate fluff and smelt.
What is smelt? You ask? It’s a smallish fish that is breaded and deep fried, en masse, for the enjoyment of fundraising partakers everywhere in Wisconsin. ‘Tis the season for smelt.
‘Tis also the season for brat frys, spaghetti suppers, fun runs, pancake breakfasts, pork chop dinners and every other sort of way for local organizations to raise funds. And if you’re spending life with a funeral director, you likely enjoy them too.
Supporting our communities by going to events like this is part of our life. Like a politician, we show up, we chit chat and we make sure we thank the hosts so they know we were there. It gives our Funeral Directors a chance to see people they’ve served and/or seen at the funeral home in a casual, social environment. It lets them know we’re a family too and we support everything that they do.
Sponsoring community events and activities is also an important marketing tool for our funeral homes. But showing up, as a family, adds human faces to our business. And this is good.
Chatting with the President of the gun club about his plans for fishing this spring while he encourages my children to finish their beans creates relationships. Buying a couple of raffle tickets and walking through the basket raffle with my girls gives the Ladies’ Auxiliary members a chance to be moms for a little while again. Ogling amazing desserts while the farmers’ wives blush behind the table builds rapport. Petting bunnies, goats and other critters at the church picnic makes us human.
None of this is forced or fake. It’s living life with our funeral directors as a part of the community. It’s connections. It’s community. It’s fun. And it sure beats making dinner at the end of a busy weekend. Enjoy your smelt.
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