Elmer’s County Market provided coffee and doughnuts for the ladies to pick up before visiting with vendors and finding their seat.

“This is the first year we included vendors,” said organizer Linda Peters.

This year there were 15 quilt block entries for the contest. The theme was “sampler.”

“We could make any design we wanted for our quilt block,” second place winner Maureen Lapinski said.

Deborah Prescott | Daily Press Jan Curtis holds the quilt block she submitted and the viewers’ choice ribbon, Friday at the Ladies Day event.

Entrants included the reason they made their block and what type of media they used. First prize winner was Lynn DeRoche from Limestone. DeRoche’s quilt block looked like nine small blocks made into the one. The second prize winner was Maureen Lapinski of Bark River, and third prize winner was Cathy Gabriel from Rapid River.

Throughout the morning, attendees at the event voted for the “viewer’s choice” quilt block out of 12 entries. The prize went to Jan Curtis for her pink and green detailed block. The winner of the quilt this year was Pat Hoffmeyer. As is tradition, the quilt was made of the quilt blocks from the year before.

“I am so happy I won this quilt, it is so beautiful,” said Hoffmeyer.

Chicken was the main ingredient for the recipe contest. Judges Bob Brown, Ann and Joe Crispigna and Nicholas Gasso had the difficult task of deciding first, second and third places from seven dishes. After tasting each dish individually they judged on a scale of one to five based on four categories — appearance and presentation, creativity, taste, and texture and doneness. Brown dished out the samples to the judges as he and the others gave each dish four to 20 points total.

Paula Waeghe accepted the dishes from the cooks so the judges would not know who made what dish. Dishes were suppose to be in by 10 a.m., but they pushed the deadline back hoping to get additional dishes.

Deborah Prescott | Daily Press Alexandria Palzewicz, Isabelle Van Brocklin, and Becky Keuhl hold up their prize ribbons and gifts after winning first, third and second. The main ingredient was chicken this year.

“We were hoping for more contestants,” said Ann Crispigna. “Last year we had 22 dishes entered and we only have seven today.”

Alexandria Palzewicz won first prize with her “Local Chicken Banh Mi,” a sandwich style dish. Second prize went to Becky Keuhl for her “Hearty Chicken Soup,” and Isabelle Van Brocklin received third prize with her “Buffalo Chip Dip.”

Brown told the crowd next year’s main ingredient will be pork products.

Emcee Allison Paige led the crowd through the itinerary of the morning with DJ Mike Flavor taking care of sound. Five speakers took the stage with “Together We Rise” as the common theme of each speech.

Misha Gagne and Nicole Sexton kicked off their segment with their speech titled “Relationships Are Hard – Lead With Your Heart, Not You Head.” They are a mom and step-mom team co-parenting Gagne’s daughter, Deanna. Sexton refers to herself as a “bonus-mom” of Deanna.

Jacquelyn Trask-Rahn discussed with the crowd financial planning and why it is important for women, and before the first question and answer period Samantha Brunette spoke to the crowd about the importance of taking care of yourself.

Jennifer Rajala spoke to the crowd about creating an “empower hour,” where a goal is chosen and four points of focus for that goal are determined. Individuals are encouraged to put 15 minutes toward each point, creating the “Empower hour, helping you to go from where you are to where you want to be”.

Rounding out the speeches was Rebecca Ingebrigtsen, a life coach who’s speech was titled “Emotional Empowerment, The Key to Leading Your Life.” She spoke about a five word sentence: “My thoughts create my feelings.”

The 50/50 prize of $405 went to Kay Maynard, who is planning to use the money for a surprise birthday party coming up.

Some of the proceeds from the raffle ticket sales and 50/50 sales will go to the Tri-County Safe Harbor.

Linda Peters, Suani Nieto, and Rebecca Ingebrigtsen worked together to provide the crowd with gifts, treats and knowledge.