Fall around here brings our annual kuchen-baking adventure. It started about 17 years ago when a group at the church we attend that was planning to go on a mission trip decided that one big day of baking would go a long way toward raising the funds they needed.

It’s morphed over the years to a two-weekend event that raises money for community needs — people who have experienced health problems or disasters or other needs — and for our high school’s music program’s biennial trip to experience music in a bigger city. The church organizes volunteers for the first weekend, and high school music students and their parents man the second.

Part of the baking involves having someone arrive at 3 a.m. to help our baker extraordinaire, Melissa, make the dough. This year, I volunteered for one of

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