Dinner will help area families
Funds will go to help buy gifts, other items for those in need
WATERVLIET, N.Y. » For more than 30 years, members of Albany County Legislature Democratic Majority Caucus have lent a helping hand during the holiday season to families in need.
Albany County Legislature Chairman Sean Ward, D- GreenIsland, said that the legislature has hosted its annual Adopt a Family Spaghetti fundraiser dinner for roughly 32 years now. The annual fundraiser dinner is taking place from 3:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. Friday at the Watervliet Elks Lodge, located at 501 4th Ave.
People who attend the dinner can either eat in or have take out for $10 a person; kids younger than 12 can eat for free. Attendees will be able to enjoy foods such as spaghetti, meatballs, sausage, salad, bread and butter, coffee, tea, soda and homemade desserts. Ward said that last year they served over 800 dinners, and the group looking to surpass that amount this year.
The fundraiser dinner helps to sponsor dozens of families throughout Albany County, including some in Watervliet, Green Island and Cohoes. Ward also mentioned how they also intend to help some of the fire victims that were a part of the blaze in downtown Cohoes on Nov. 30.
“One-hundred percent of the money goes toward buying gifts or any other items for needy fam-
“One-hundred percent of the money goes toward buying gifts or any other items for needy families that are identified through the county’s Adopt a Family program. We’ve already reached out to officials from Cohoes about the fire victims.” — Albany County Legislature Chairman Sean Ward, D- Green-Island
ilies that are identified through the county’s Adopt a Family program,” explained Ward. “We’ve already reached out to officials from Cohoes about the fire victims; we actually had a couple donors purchase some spaghetti dinner tickets to be distributed to those families in Cohoes.”
For several years, Albany County Legislator Bob Beston, D-Watervliet, has helped bring in volunteers to prep all of the meals for the annual fundraiser dinner.
“We started Monday doing the sauce, we do about 40 gallons a day,” said Beston, “so we do probably 100 gallons of sauce,
we’re doing 200 pounds of sausage, we’re doing 200 loaves of Italian bread - donated from Schuyler Bakery - we have about, on hand, 1,280 meatballs.”
Ward said that many of the legislators, along with staff members, will go out and purchase some of the
donated gifts. They will set aside a certain date before Christmas to drop off the gifts to families throughout the county.
“This is the fun part of the job, when you can make somebody’s life a little brighter around the holidays, it’s something that we all take a lot of joy in doing,” said Ward.
People will be able to purchase tickets at the door on Friday.