A recipe for encouragement in Adams County - Evening Sun

Carrie Plank, 21, of Cashtown, holds up a cookbook she made using family recipes as her miniature Dachshund, Hilda, rests behind her. Plank is collecting recipes to make another cookbook as a fundraiser for her neighbor, Randy Beck, who was badly burned in a garage fire. (THE EVENING SUN BRETT BERWAGER)

She remembers days spent in the kitchen, the warm, sugary smells of baking wafting through the house.

Alongside her grandmother, Carrie Plank got lessons at an early age in making good, down-home Pennsylvania Dutch food - whoopie pies, chicken pot pies, really anything in pie form that's as delicious as it is caloric.

Last year, the 21-year-old from Cashtown included a lot of those recipes with others gathered from friends in a cookbook called "Great Family Recipes." And she's making another cookbook this year.

But this time, it's for more than just the fun of it.

She'll be selling copies of the cookbook to help one of her neighbors, Randy Beck, who lives up the road and was badly burned along with two others in a garage fire last May.

There was an accidental explosion in the garage, and Beck was left with high medical bills from his extensive treatment, Plank said.

Plank, whose mom is a friend of Beck's girlfriend, said the couple are "fun-loving and down to earth people," who could use some help.

Friends have been doing sandwich sales to help offset the medical bills, but Plank wanted to try something a little different.

Now, she's collecting recipes of all kinds to include in the cookbook. She has about 20 to 25 so far, and is looking to reach 200 before May 15.

She's not asking for donations of money, at least not yet, she said.

"It's just recipes," Plank said. "A lot of people have bigger

fundraisers, but this will just take a second of someone's time."

She's collecting them primarily through email, and said anyone who wants to share a favorite recipe can send it to carrieplank@gmail.com

The recipes can be for any food course or a favorite drink.

"Whatever they like or what their families like," Plank said. "A lot of people send in their favorite family recipes."

So far the recipes have been a nice variety, and have come from as far as Washington and Illinois.

"It'd be cool to get one from every state," Plank said.

But she'll settle for meeting her collection goal of 200.

Once she collects enough recipes she'll begin taking orders for the cookbook, which will probably cost $10 to $15, and will then create the book through an online publishing website.

And she's asking that anyone who sends her a recipe include a note of encouragement for Randy Beck.

"I want to make him feel a part of it," she said.

She calls it the "OT" side of her, explaining that in her studies at Penn State Mont Alto to become an occupational therapist assistant she's taught to analyze what a client's needs are.

For Beck, she said, it's encouragement.

"It's not just him and his girlfriend," Plank said. "He has a community."

hfaulhefer@eveningsun.com; 717-637-3736, ext. 140

SEND A RECIPE

Carrie Plank is asking for submissions of favorite food and drink recipes to include in a cookbook fundraiser to help her neighbor, Randy Beck. Recipes and words of encouragement for Beck can be emailed to carrieplank@gmail.com by May 15.

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