As if knitting military helmet liners, collecting soda-can tabs and donating food weren't enough, residents of the Carefree Village retirement community have hatched a plan to bring in money for the world around them: a community cookbook.

It's the first time the park has sponsored a large fundraiser to bring in a lot of money at once, said Darlene Fields, president of the Carefree Village Association.

The neat mobile-home village of more than 300 retirees is on North Romero Road between East Prince and East Wetmore roads.

"We do a lot of little things, but we wanted to do one something to replace money we had been spending," she said.

"We worked like dogs on it," said Sharon Redies-Rayner, who chaired the cookbook committee.

The idea came up at the May association meeting, said Redies-Rayner, a self-described cookbook fanatic who has more than 400 cookbooks.

"I raised my hand and said, 'I'll do it if I can chair it,' " she said.

From potlucks to meals for two

So Redies-Rayner went to work with two other committee members -- Mary Ellen Palmer and Ardis Foster -- soliciting recipes from the community, choosing a cookbook design and proofreading recipes after cut-and-pasting them into the template supplied by the cookbook manufacturer.

Printing costs came to about $650, Redies-Rayner said.

It was ready by autumn, and the women began selling copies for $8. By the beginning of this month, 120 were sold from the initial printing of 200, with orders coming in almost daily. The cookbook was available at a parkwide yard sale last month and will be on sale again at the Christmas craft boutique the park is hosting on Saturday.

Because the park is full of retired people who mainly live alone or with one other person, the cookbook committee originally requested recipes that serve two people, Redies-Rayner wrote in a note before an interview.

"However, so many excellent, well-remembered potluck recipes were submitted that it became more general, with recipes to serve two at the end of each category," she wrote.

The result, said Fields, was the neighbors now have recipes from people who have moved on or passed away, which means a lot to them. Because of that, "Sharing Our Best" is a great title for the book, she said.

And it's become such a popular concept for the residents, she has started including a "cookbook corner" in the monthly newsletter, highlighting recipes that were submitted too late to make it into the book.

The women are excited about the influx of cash the cookbook is bringing. Historically, the park makes contributions to surrounding charitable causes, and last year the residents voted to help three instead of one -- the Pima Council on Aging, Brewster Center domestic violence services, and nearby Homer Davis Elementary School.

Not limited to cookbooks

On fixed retirement incomes, the residents managed to contribute $100 to each place, Fields said.

"This money is made nickels and dimes at a time," she said.

They also donated more than 450 pounds of food to the Community Food Bank, collected can tabs for the Ronald McDonald House and soda cans for Those Who Care, a foster-care agency, the women said.

Earlier this year, a news item about overseas troops needing helmet liners in the winter caught Redies-Rayner's eye, and soon the women in the park were knitting to help that cause as well.

Palmer took time between cookbook recipes to knit six of them herself, she said.

"They only came in black, brown and khaki," she said, chuckling. "We just participated because it seemed like a fun thing to do for our crocheters and knitters."

The park initially ordered 200 copies of the cookbook from the publishing company, Morris Press Cookbooks, but Redies-Rayner already is talking to local gift shops that cater to winter visitors and has some promising leads for placing the books, she said.

The women might order more copies if sales remain brisk, she said.

Meanwhile, at the park's weekly Saturday coffee hours this month and next, various charities are making presentations to the residents in hopes of receiving some of their generosity.

At the community business meeting each January, park residents decide where they want the charity money to go for the coming year, Redies-Rayner said.

She's excited to work on another cookbook in the future, she said, though she'd like to take at least a year off between this cookbook and the next.

"I'm just happy we came up with a fundraiser that puts something in people's hands related to Carefree Village Association," she said.