BELLE FOUNTAIN, Ala. — It’s a staple around these parts — the church fish fry. It’s good eating and for Hamilton Baptist Church at 32815 Highway 112 in the Belle Fountain community, it’s going to be a fundraiser for the new church building.

The fry begins at 11:30 a.m. Sept. 19 and runs to 2 p.m. There will also be a “Country Store” run by the church’s “Girls of Grace” group, which has made a variery of jams, jellies, crafts, and other good things for sale, perfect for home use now or putting away for holiday gifts.

“Plans haven’t been finalized yet, but we are planning to build a new sanctuary,” said Pam Waters, a member of the church community, and one of the sponsors of “Girls of Grace.” The “Girls” are a church organizatin for young women of high school and college age.

According to Waters, the church has not “finalized plans” for the new sanctuary, but the old one is definitely getting to small for the congregation, and current plans are to demolish it to make room for the new building.

“We just need more space,” said Waters in a telephone interview. She estimated that the current building could hold about 130 people “packed tight,” and the church would like to construct something that would comfortably hold 200.

According to an e-mail from church member Jeanette Ryan, “For the past five years the church has sponsored many benefits in order to build a new sanctuary. The Girls of Grace came up with a plan to have a community wide fish fry at the old Bell Fountain School and park on Sept. 19. The girls have been busy for the past several Wednesday night meetings making jellies, jams, preserves and pickled okra to put in their Country Store that will be supplied with homemade items. For the past three weeks the girls and their leaders, Pam Waters and Kim Burke have brought several sewing machines to their meetings and made aprons, cushions and other items. Not only will they add money to the church building fund from profits from fish plates and items sold from the store, but their times together have been learning experiences.”

The Girls of Grace is a “self-directed” group, according to Waters, have thrown themselve into preparations for the Country Store and fish fry.

“It has been amazing to see,” said Hamilton.

The Girls of Grace have welcomed two exchange students to their group. According to Ryan, “This year the Girls of Grace have welcomed two new members to their group who are exchange students from Germany and Sweden. Sofia Tillander hails from Sweden and her host family is Jeanein and Ken Waters. Aileen Lewandowski is from Germany and she is residing with Dana and Troy Huff.”

According to Ryan, “Hamilton Baptist church was organized in 1900. The church was constructed on land donated by Jack Hamilton, a sawmill operator. It was first a wood framed building, but in 1948 a new building was erected on land donated by W. Moulton for a new building and a cemetery. Hamilton Baptist Church is located on Highway 112 east of Gateswood Fire Department and Bell Fountain School which is about 20 miles from the intersection of U.S. Highway 31 at Bay Minette. Highway 112 also connects with County Road 64 from Styx River (Wilcox Exit) and County Road 87 North from U.S. Highway 90.”