YOUNGSTOWN – For many people, good things come in threes, but for Stacy Adger, they came in twos.

“I wanted to try something unique,” Adger, a dispatcher for the Youngstown State University Police Department, said. “In the past, I’ve done some things that were a little unusual.”

That was the driving force behind Adger’s desire to bake batches of taro tea cookies with white chocolate chips, a move that got her an award during Saturday’s annual Cookie Table and Cocktails fundraiser at St. Mary’s Byzantine Catholic Church’s social hall, 356 S. Belle Vista Ave., on the West Side.

Adger rolled together mainly traditional ingredients such as flour, dry powder and butter, combined with purple flavoring, to create the treats, for which she received an honorable mention.

The recipe is not common to this area. The taro plant originates in Asia, and its roots are similar in texture to a sweet potato taste.

The first time she attempted to make the cookies didn’t go quite as planned, though. As a result, they came out gray and “looked like the side of a battleship,” she said with laughter.

Adger also received a second-place finish in the professional division for her molasses blackberry preserve variety, which were flavored with rum.

“You almost want to lick the oven, they’re so good,” she said, adding that those cookies were drawn from a McCormick & Co. recipe, but also with her own touches.

The result was a batch that resembled small cinnamon rolls.

In addition, Adger baked a batch that wasn’t in the friendly competition, but that she dedicated to her late grandmother, Wilhelmina Adger.

This annual event, which was sold out, is the MVHS’ signature fundraiser, the proceeds of which will go toward supporting the organization’s programs, collections and projects. More than 400 community leaders, elected officials and others attended Saturday evening’s four-hour gala, a goal of which was to raise $25,000 for that purpose, Linda Kostka, development director, said.

Funds also will be used to support the MVHS’ capital campaign, the primary aim of which is to raise about $11 million, Kostka noted.

Those dollars will be used primarily to improve the IBM building in downtown Youngstown, where some of the MVHS’ artifacts and records are stored in a temperature- and climate-controlled environment.

The organization also plans to move additional items stored in the Arms Family Museum’s attic to the IBM building in March, Kostka said.

In addition, the gathering was intended to pay tribute to the custom of how many early immigrants in the Mahoning Valley who were unable to afford wedding cakes instead created wedding tables filled with cookies – a tradition that has been handed down for generations in this community.

Saturday’s Cookie Table and Cocktails also featured a silent auction, a 50/50 drawing and a basket raffle.

Providing the entertainment was Larry Elefante, a jazz group.

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