The 63-year-old fundraising tradition continues at Saint Joan Antida High School with thousands of meatballs.
The school will host Spaghetti with the Sisters Sunday, and to prepare for the fundraising event, more than 400 pounds of donated meat has to be molded into meatballs.
It's St. Joan Antida's President Marikris Coryell's first year at the school, but she says she couldn't be prouder of volunteers helping keep up this long-standing tradition.
"Actually being here and seeing all the volunteers it takes to make it happen is just very energizing," said Coryell.
She anticipates nearly 5,000 meatballs to be molded for Sunday's feast. There are close to 50 volunteers that help the school staff and sisters work to make the meatballs, dinner and really the whole fundraiser happen.
Gentlemen from the Pompeii Men's Club are the group most involved in the project.
Member Paul Lamarre has been part of the club for the last two years. He says he joined after wanting to help the Sisters of Saint Joan Antida do more than just serve spaghetti dinners.
"It's a good idea to help people who help each other," said Lamarre. "And the sisters of Saint Joan Antida are pretty well known for that."
Lamarre is one of close to 20 people in the high school's kitchen helping mold the meat into perfect little balls.
Between everyone's molding hands and the hot oven baking tray after tray of food, there's little time for rest. That isn't unlike years past says Sister Jennifer Daul.
Sister Jennifer is a St. Joan Antida alumni and remembers helping the nuns make the meatballs. As a woman who's been associated with the school, in one way or another, for 50 years, she's proud of this community.
"Knowing that what I have been a part of, the school I loved as a kid is continuing, and it's becoming that for other young women," said Sister Jennifer. "I get teary when I think of it."
This traditional fundraiser has raised more than $1 million throughout its 63 years. Everyone in the kitchen from the school staff, volunteers and nuns say this isn't just a dinner. They say this fundraiser is a signal to the high school, and its students, that the community cares.
For more information on St Joan Antida's Spaghetti with the Sisters on Sunday, visit their website.
