Washington Evening Journal
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Fairfield Lions Club to host spaghetti fundraiser Thursday
Andy Hallman
Mar. 15, 2022 11:02 am
FAIRFIELD — After taking two years off due to the pandemic, the Fairfield Lions Club’s spaghetti supper fundraiser is back.
The club will serve a meal of spaghetti, breadsticks, salad and dessert from 5-7:30 p.m. on Thursday, March 17 at the Fairfield Arts & Convention Center. The Fairfield High School band and choir will perform for attendees, who also have a chance to bid on items in a silent auction. The event raises money for the high school’s athletics and fine arts departments.
Tickets are $7 in advance and $8 at the door, and they can be purchased from Lions Club members or high school students. Denise Hall, Lions Club secretary, said the students who sell the most tickets get a cash prize from the club. The club is also accepting donations of eyeglasses to give to people around the world who need them.
Attendees can get their meals to-go or sit at a table and enjoy the live music while being waited on by high school students. Hall said the club is preparing 500 meals, which is how many it served the last time the event was held in 2019. Fairfield Activities Director Jeff Courtright reported that the 2019 dinner raised more than $5,000 for the school’s extracurricular activities.
For many years, the spaghetti dinner was held at Fairfield Best Western. In late 2020, a restaurant in that hotel suffered an electrical fire, and the building has not reopened. The Lions Club decided to move its spaghetti dinner to the Fairfield Arts & Convention Center for 2022. Hall said that with the large number of people attending the event, they had outgrown the Best Western’s dining room anyway.
When asked who would prepare Thursday’s dinner, Hall responded by saying “yours truly” and the other members of the Lions Club. The club is using the spaghetti recipe from the Fairfield school, which is also providing the supplies.
Hall said she’s thrilled the event is back after missing two years. As COVID spread throughout the United States in the spring of 2020, the Lions Club was forced to cancel its spaghetti dinner just two days before the scheduled event. Since it had already ordered all the food, the club donated it to the Fairfield Senior Center.
“At least somebody got some use out of it,” Hall said.
The Fairfield Lions Club has 62 members, and meets twice a month: the first Tuesday of the month at noon at Fairfield Hy-Vee, and the third Monday of the month at 5 p.m., also at Hy-Vee. Hy-Vee serves the club members a lunch during the Tuesday meeting, and the club holds a board meeting on Monday nights.
“For anybody who wants to join, find me in the kitchen Thursday night and I’ll sign you right up,” Hall said.
Call Andy Hallman at 641-575-0135 or email him at andy.hallman@southeastiowaunion.com
Fairfield High School student Hunter Drish, right, gets a plate of spaghetti during the Fairfield Lions Club’s fundraising dinner in March 2018. The annual event raises money for the Fairfield school’s activities department. (Union archive photo)
Fairfield Lions Club member Bob Keller, right, enlists the help of youngsters in drawing raffle winners at the 2019 spaghetti dinner the Lions Club puts on to fundraise for Fairfield school activities. Also pictured is Darien Sloat, left.