Spaghetti Fest 2012 to Award 4 Scholarships

For the past 11 years, the Spring-Ford Chamber of Commerce has worked in cooperation with the Spring-Ford Area School District to put on Spaghetti Fest - a community fundraiser dinner that works in tandem with the school's spring play, to raise money for scholarships to area students.

In the past, two Spring-Ford students would receive $1,000 scholarships from the event. However, with coming to town in the 2010-11 school year, the Chamber decided to give two more students the opportunity - now awarding two students from Spring-Ford and two students from PJPII $1,000 scholarships.

The event will take place on March 30 at cafeteria from 5-8 p.m. Cost to attend is $7 for adults and $5 for children under 12 and seniors.

"I just want them to know that 100 percent of what they pay for that meal is going right back to the benefit of the students at Spring-Ford and Pope John Paul," said event coordinator Rick Storms.

Storms is a board member of the Chamber of Commerce and also a past president. He also represents St. Pedro and Associates, which is a sponsor for the event. Ambler Savings Bank is also a corporate sponsor this year.

Aside from corporate sponsorships, which put up money to run the event, there have been plenty of ways to help get the annual event moving toward success.

"Usually, we try to solicit grocery store or Wawa gift cards from the community so we can buy stuff for the event – coffee, cream and sugar, Parmesan cheese, plates, napkins," Storms explained. "The Spring-Ford School District is also a very integral part of the whole equation. Not only do they give us their facilities to use for free, but they allow us to do it in tandem with one of their events.

"That helps us with our attendance. People are coming in to attend that particular event. Come early and have dinner at the spaghetti fest. The Builders Club at the high school is great for us, because they help the actual day of the event as wait staff and to bus tables and things like that. The art department plays a role, because they paint. We have wooden signs we put out throughout the community in various spots. Every year they repaint the signs for us. The staff of the high school maintenance department puts the signs on the trucks and distributes them throughout the community and picks them up after the event."

Chamber members also ask for donations, both monetary and for the silent auction. Storms said the Spring Valley YMCA donated a full family membership to the auction this year. Other businesses give gift baskets, and members of those organizations help out the day of the event with serving the spaghetti and running the event.

Storms, a Class of 1987 Spring-Ford alumnus, has always felt happy to see the appreciation in the eyes of the students.

"It’s great for me because not a lot of things you do in the community do you see a direct sort of payoff for, so to speak," he concluded. "Obviously, Spring-Ford holds a place in my heart and is very sentimental to me. It makes me feel good to give back directly to the students who are following in the footsteps of not only myself, but my friends and even some of the staff at Spring-Ford High School that graduated around the same time as me."