Spaghetti dinner - a tradition revived

Free this year as a Thank You to voters

By Rod Heivilin

In October 1975, the volunteer firefighters at the Richmond Beach station decided they needed to have a fundraiser to get money to continue the annual Easter Egg Hunt and their annual Christmas morning Santa ride. At that time the egg hunt required the purchase of 3,600 eggs which were boiled and colored by the firefighters and their spouses. The Santa ride required the purchase of over 250 pounds of wrapped candy.

As one of the newer members, having only three years with the department, I suggested a spaghetti dinner. The idea was approved and thus began an 18 year tradition. We went door to door and sold tickets every September and had the dinner at the Richmond Beach Congregational Church each October through 1992.

The first year was a bit of a disaster. We were far better ticket sellers than cooks and we were totally overwhelmed by the turnout. We knew very little about cooking for hundreds and had no idea we could cook spaghetti in advance, so we were always behind in the noodle game. Several wives were cooking noodles at home and bringing them to the church to help us keep up. Many people gave up and went to the Italian restaurant just down the street.

The second year things went much better and we became quite proficient in serving large groups of people. One of the other firefighters would join me at 3am to begin cooking the sauce. Everything was made from scratch and over the years our recipe became quite popular.

One particular dinner, one of the diners made a comment to one of the servers about the sauce. She said, “I assume this recipe is a closely held secret by the chef”.  She was told that I would no doubt be happy to share the recipe and I was asked to speak to her.

I told her it was simple, just begin with 300 pounds of lean ground beef, 35 pounds of onions … She stopped me there and asked if I could pare it down to family size. I told her I only knew how to cook for 250 – 750 people.

Last year one of the current firefighters wanted to revive the tradition. The firefighters still do the Easter Egg hunt, the Santa rides (now on three engines each Christmas morning), and our “Shoreline Christmas” event has grown exponentially since its beginning back in the 70’s.

I agreed to dig out my chef’s hat and prepare the dinner and lots of firefighters came to help. I was told to expect several hundred people, so I prepared lots of food. To my dismay, we had only 155 diners show up and firefighters had to take lots of spaghetti sauce home to their freezers.

This year we are going to do the dinner once again in hopes of really reviving the tradition. Fire departments are all about tradition and this is a good one. To really launch it, the firefighters have decided to do the dinner without ticket sales.

This is their way of saying THANK YOU to the voters for their huge support of our recent ballot measures. Everyone is invited to attend without cost. There will be a donation box available for those wishing to donate, but there is no cost to attend.

The event will be from 3-8pm on this coming Saturday, October 24 at the Scottish Rite Center, 1207 N 152 St. Seating space is a bit limited so you may have a little wait if you come during the peak dining times, but don’t let that discourage you. Come see what firefighter cooking is all about.

Help us continue this fun Shoreline Firefighter’s tradition.