Got beef? Annual sale is one of Rotary Club’s biggest fundraisers
The annual aroma of beef cooking was once again wafting through the air in downtown St. Marys on Thursday as members of the St. Marys Rotary Club prepared for their annual beef sale, which is taking place today.
The club began cooking their first of three batches of beef at 9:30 a.m. Thursday and planned to do another in the afternoon and the final one this morning. According to Rotary Club member Bob Roberts, who is also the club’s incoming president, it takes roughly four hours to cook each batch.
“There are 21 rounds at a time, and they average 10-12 pounds,” Roberts said of each batch. “We’ll do roughly 700 pounds (of beef) total.”
That equates to about 1,700 sandwiches – all of which typically sell out in less than two hours. The sale begins today at 10:30 a.m., and Roberts indicated that they are typically sold out around noon.
“We’ve already gotten quite a few preorders from factories and so on,” Roberts said.
Keeping up with the high demand would not be possible without all of the volunteers who assist with the sale each year.
“The volunteer alliance will be here. There are a lot of students that come down and help us, for which we give them service hours, and there are just general people from the community that want to come and help,” Roberts said. “As you can imagine, making 1,700 sandwiches is quite a chore.”
Pickup will once again be held on Depot Street in front of Project Gifts for Elk County. Despite the long lines that typically form, Roberts said that people are generally patient as they wait to place and receive their orders.
“It works out well. We try to service everybody as quickly as we can,” Roberts said.
The beef sale has been in its current location for roughly a decade, but the event has been an annual tradition in St. Marys for much longer.
“I’ve been in Rotary 38 years, and they were doing it before that,” Roberts said.
The annual beef sale is one of the Rotary Club’s biggest fundraisers.
“It helps Rotary in that we can then distribute to all of the nonprofits and stuff that appeal to us for funds. The money stays in the community,” Roberts said. “Rotary, itself, doesn’t spend the money on itself. We spend it on the charities that we support.”
Roberts noted that the Rotary Club currently has 21 members and is always looking for new community members who want to get involved.
“We invite anybody to come to any Tuesday evening meeting and see what we’re about,” Roberts said.
The Rotary Club meets at 5:30 p.m. at the scout house at Memorial Park. The scout house recently underwent extensive renovations during a project completed by the club.
Additional information on the Rotary Club can also be found online at http://www.stmarysparotary.org/.