MARYSVILLE — Patti Cunningham-Rhoden and the Sons of Italy are cooking up some amore for college students.
“This is a yearly tradition for our Mille Cugini lodge,” Cunningham-Rhoden said. “Volunteering time, effort and energy to raise money for local needs.”
The club name, Mille Cugini, is Italian for a “thousand cousins,” and represents the familial bond club members have with one another as well as the community — something the dinner symbolizes as a large gathering of friends and family over traditional Italian food.
This year, proceeds from the dinner will go to scholarships for local college students.
Cunningham-Rhoden, who has been part of the club for more than six years, recently volunteered to help organize and present the yearly dinner.
“This dinner is massive, and Joanne Erickson literally put it all together and cooked everything, she was a marvel,” Cunningham-Rhoden said. “Now that she’s gone, it takes a committee to do what one woman could do, and she made it look easy.”
The dinner itself is a robust affair of traditional Italian cuisine with a menu that sounds simple but in preparation is far from it.
“Everything is homemade by members of Milli Cugini,” Cunningham-Rhoden said. “Every meatball and sausage, down to the sauce itself, is all made by hand. No cans in our kitchens.”
Peter Paterno, the vice-president of Mille Cugini, echoed her description of the Herculean effort that goes into the annual meal.
“It’s a huge undertaking that couldn’t be done without the volunteer efforts of our lodge members,” Paterno said. “What makes it so popular is that it’s for a great cause and, not only that, it’s fun.”
In the last two years, the club has raised more than $100,000 for various charitable ventures across Snohomish County.
“We’ve bought and distributed bicycles for children at Christmastime, made contributions to find cures for rare blood diseases and donated to the Marysville Food Bank,” Cunningham-Rhoden said. “It’s important to us to volunteer in the community and give back to it as much as it has given to us.”
Reporter Justin Arnold: 425-339-3432 or jarnold@heraldnet.com.
Spaghetti dinner
The Mille Cugini Spaghetti Dinner and Raffle will be 2 to 7 p.m. Saturday at St. Mary’s Catholic Church, 4200 88th St. NE, Marysville.
The price is $10 for adults, and $5 for kids ages 4 to 10.
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