38th Utica Rotary Special Needs Holiday Party

MVCC student Gary Cummings and Utica Rotaian Lorina Steppello were members of the team that decorated the Alumni College Center at MVCC.

Fran Pugliese works the bugs out of decorations during setup.

PP Don St Louis and PP Gib Jones were Utica Rotarians in 1971, the year of our first holiday get together.

A Winter Wonderland cake....almost too festive to eat!

With architectural precision, PP Mike Vanstrander cuts the cake into long pieces, each 10cm wide. He would later make perpendicular cuts to create hundreds of individual servings.

That's alotta cake!

More than 500 meals were served last Friday night, thanks to the financial support of Utica Rotary's Service Fund, and the volunteer support of Rotarians, staff of The Arc, guests and family members.

Joe Skane is a veteran of this event from its days at Westminster Church in Utica, when "Rotarians brought the food, set up the tables, cooked, served, cleaned up and turned out the lights." The party has been held in the Alumni College Center at MVCC since 1986.

Celebrity servers included Noah Jones, son of PP Dave

Stage Works presented songs of the season.

Service Above Self.

President Lou gets a status report from event chair Amy Mielnicki.

Utica Rotarian and MVCC President Randy VanWagoner joins District Governor Larry Calabrese and event chair Amy Mielnicki at the serving line.

Shawki Elgarhi joins Tom Matt (headed to Thailand next year as a Youth Exchange student), Mia DeGeronimo, and Larry Matt (foreground).

A good time was had by all!