CAES spaghetti supper raises more than $1,400 for biennial Keewaydin trip

More than 200 people were served a homemade spaghetti dinner at Chester-Andover Elementary School last Thursday night to raise funds for the biennial Keewaydin trip for fifth and sixth graders. SEE PHOTO GALLERY BELOW.

Diners had to wait to tuck into their meals when, about 20 minutes into the service, a fire alarm went off in the kitchen, sending everyone outside until the Chester Fire Department could give the all-clear. The likely cause was a boiling pot of spaghetti water beneath a closed vent, according to co-organizer Frank Kelley, a fifth-sixth grade teacher.

Students and their parents donated spaghetti sauce and Parmesan cheese, while CAES Food Services supplied the pasta. Black River Produce donated the salad fixings, Lisai’s Chester Market gave a large discount on the hamburger for the meatballs and Crow’s Bakery in Proctorsville donated the bread. Parent Tracy Parsons and Shanna McCarthy, also a CAES teacher, created the aprons.

Students acted as waitstaff, serving up pasta with sauce, meatballs and garlic bread. In all, more than $1,400 was raised to send the kids to the weeklong Keewaydin Environmental Education Center in 2016 in Salisbury, Vt.

Kelley called it one of the biggest turnouts for the annual spaghetti supper, and credited fifth-sixth grade paraeducator Carol Neff, his co-organizer, with helping to bring in more money than they had in previous years.

Neff said that while the fund-raiser raises money, it also brings the community together.

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Homemade spaghetti supper lured 200 to dine. All photos by Jake Arace.

CAES students acted as servers, some, like James Birmingham, donning mustaches.

Gray King serves up plates of pasta as servers from right, Zoe Meyer, Nic Houghton, and Jeb Monier, line up to accept food for the customers seated at tables in the cafeteria.

Not every server wore a mustache. From left, Eva Svec and Marlayna King don big smiles.

From left, Tim Tadlock, director of KEEC, Carol Neff and Frank Kelley.

Frank Kelley slices up the warm garlic bread.