Senior Connection hosts spaghetti lunch as fundraiser

Published 3:45 pm Wednesday, August 16, 2017

Senior Connection held a spaghetti lunch and quilt show on Aug. 16 at its location near downtown Clanton.

Several of its members as well as men and women from businesses around the area spent their lunch break at the event.

The lunch is one of many Senior Connection hosts throughout the year.

It served as another fundraiser so the facility can eventually purchase a 36-passenger bus.

“That’s our big item that we’re wanting to get, and we’re still chugging along,” Senior Connection director Vanessa McKinney said.

Entering the spaghetti lunch, Senior Connection had about a quarter of the money required to purchase a bus.

Chilton County Transit is currently used for the trips that are scheduled. Although the transit services provided are much appreciated, McKinney said having their own transportation would be beneficial for everyone.

“It will make a tremendous difference,” McKinney said. “We could just pick up and go wherever we wanted to go and even on overnight trips. It will also help lower the price for our members, who are on such a limited budget, and give them an opportunity to do even more.”

Sammy Wyatt made more than 26 gallons of spaghetti sauce using her own recipe that she has perfected over the years.

She cooked a majority of the sauce in her home using ingredients provided by her fellow Senior Connection members.

Spaghetti is known to be a dish that easily feeds a lot, but even so she began the prep work nearly two weeks in advance.

“She personally makes it, because it is so delicious,” McKinney said. “We couldn’t do it without her.”

About 30 quilts were on display around the stage inside Senior Connection and could be viewed by everyone in attendance.

According to Martha Thornburgh, quilting is a form of art and something that takes time to accomplish the ideas in the mind of a quilter.

“If you spend that much time on something, you want someone to see it and appreciate it,” Thornburgh said.

There are several guilds around town, the majority of which are associated with churches.

However, within the past year the Chilton County Extension Office and Senior Connection have each started quilting groups of their own.