Eating it or wearing it

Spaghetti dinner raises money for causes

February 12, 2007|by KAREN HANNA

HAGERSTOWN - With a sauce-splattered knife laid across her plate, Samantha Ebersole spun spaghetti with her fork and spoon.

Spaghetti covered the corners of some diners' mouths as they dug into heaping plates at a fundraiser Sunday, but for the 14-year-old from Williamsport, eating was a ballet of twist, spin and chomp.

Samantha, her parents and a friend were among those who turned out on a gray, chilly day to enjoy Antietam Exchange Club's 34th annual Italian Festa at South Hagerstown High School.

Frit Hill, president of Antietam Exchange Club, said he was expecting the group would feed 600 to 650 people.

Proceeds from the dinner - tickets cost $8 in advance and $9 at the door - will go toward causes that include Big Brothers Big Sisters of Washington County and a Hagerstown Community College scholarship fund, Hill said.

Asked about her technique, Samantha was dismissive.

"I don't know, I eat spaghetti all the time, at least once or twice a week," she said.

At another table, 8-year-old Matthew Elter sucked spaghetti from his plate. Sauce ringed his mouth and covered a napkin.

"It's not my fault I wear it. I wear everything I eat," Matthew said when his father's girlfriend, Carrie Stottlemyer of Hagerstown, joked about his eating habits.

In the kitchen, Bob Fennel, one of the club's charter members, talked as fellow volunteers dumped water from a steaming cauldron of boiling spaghetti. He said they could boil 20 pounds of uncooked spaghetti - enough to feed 100 people - at one time.

"I've been doing this job for 34 years. It took them 30 years to train me, but I'm starting to get the hang of it," Fennel quipped.

Whether they eat their food or end up wearing it, diners at the Italian Festa typically put away a lot of spaghetti.

The club planned to prepare about 90 gallons of sauce and 240 pounds of pasta, Hill said.

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