LaRosa Dinner serves up spaghetti and fellowship

By RICHARD JENKINS

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Ironwood - As it has for the past four decades, the smell of cooked spaghetti and meatballs filled the Fr. Darryl Pepin Hall in the basement of Our Lady of Peace Catholic Church in Ironwood Sunday as the church held its annual LaRosa Dinner.

The dinner centers around National Catholic Schools Week, which ended Sunday.

"The culmination (of the week) for us is the LaRosa Dinner," said Father Robb Jurkovich, the parish's pastor. "It's a fundraiser that goes to help the school as well as the parish."

The fundraiser began Saturday and continued through Sunday, with 513 dinners served Saturday and over 600 meals were served as of 4 p.m. Sunday when combining kids, adults and take-out orders.

Now in its 41st year, Jurkovich said the dinner took its name from the company which first produced the spaghetti used in the meals.

The money raised is split between the parish's faith formation programs and the All Saints Catholic Academy.

"That's why - as far as volunteers go - we have school families and students, and then religious education families and students, parish members, (even) people who don't belong to our church," said Alison Schlag, the faith formation coordinator.

Jurkovich estimated a total of 1,200 people will probably be served by the end of the day.

Schlag said the dinner wouldn't be possible without the hard work from the volunteers that helped both days, including the local Knights of Columbus, plus other volunteers and the general support from the community that made the event possible. Schlag said the event also got support from the surrounding parishes.

"We have a lot of people that come from Bessemer, Wakefield and Hurley," said Schlag.

Schlag said she was pleased with the turnout, especially given Sunday was the day of the Super Bowl.

"It's amazing how many people grab spaghetti for their Super Bowl dinners," Schlag said.