MARGATE – The secret to the sauce or gravy is out, but we won’t share it here. The Eugene A. Tighe School held its 28th annual Spaghetti Dinner Thursday, Nov. 29 with former Superintendent of the Margate schools Dominick A. Potena making the spaghetti sauce (gravy). Potena has made the sauce every year, even after he retired in 2009, he said. With a wink he shared his secret, but he asked us to keep it confidential.
Making 40 pounds of pasta donated by Casel’s Marketplace is quite a chore, but Potena had some help from Carlo Citera of Carluccio’s Pizza in Northfield, teacher Ron Pinter and a few parents. Robert’s restaurant donated the salad, roasted vegetables, chicken wings and chicken fingers, while Sophia’s restaurant donated the meatballs and Rando’s bakery provided the bread.
The Margate Education Foundation hosted the event to fund the eighth grade dance.
According to Jennifer Seligsohn, who has a daughter in the eighth grade class, said the MEF did something different this year. It provided a “meals on wheels” opportunity for residents of Margate Terrace and Shalom House. Representatives of the senior citizen condominium complexes picked up the dinners at 3 p.m. for anyone who requested them.
“We reduced the price to $5, but it was paid for by the social services department and free to the seniors,” Seligsohn said. “That gave us an extra 110 dinners.”
The MEF also conducted a raffle of restaurant gift cards along with donated bottles of wine.
Also during the event, the MEF pulled the winning ticket for a $20 per ticket raffle conducted since the beginning of the school year. Proceeds from the sale of tickets will fund field trips, assemblies, and teachers’ wish lists, said Anita Grimley, who is a founding member of the MEF.
The winners of the raffle included Kristen Towbin, Stephania Saienni-Albert, Lisa Finneran, Bernadette Sher and Mary Ann Cario who each received $278. The grand prize winner of $1,370 was Kristy Wroe.
