St. Patrick's Day Dinner Sells Out

SEELEY LAKE – For the first time in more than 15 years, the Seeley Lake Senior Center ran out of corned beef at their annual St. Patrick's Day Dinner March 18. Along with corned beef dinner, complete with Irish stew, attendees enjoyed a cake walk, silent auction, 50/50 drawing and bingo.

This year the annual fundraiser was held Sunday instead of Saturday. Missoula Electric Cooperative held its annual membership meeting Saturday, March 17 so the seniors decided to see what kind of a turnout they would have on Sunday.

" As it turned out we had so many people at one time that we didn't have a place for them to sit down and eat," wrote Rachel Wilkinson in an email.

Wilkinson was in charge of the kitchen this year. She had never made the stew before.

"With verbal help from Edie Walters I managed to get it all together," she wrote. "I couldn't have done it without the help of Elden Barbieri, he did what I needed him to do."

Wilkinson said they cooked 93 pounds of corned beef and she had to make two grocery runs for carrots during the event. This is the first year in more than 15 years that she has helped that they haven't had extra corned beef to sell after the dinner.

There were a lot of silent auction items to bid on and a large table piled high with cakes and desserts to win in the cake walk. Wilkinson estimated they raised around $1,000 in the silent auction alone.

Wilkinson felt that the event was a great success. Senior Center President Boyd Gossard agreed. He was especially grateful for the excellent help from the Seeley-Swan High School Leos Club who volunteered to help serve food and clean tables.

"We did real good," said Gossard. "We want to thank everyone for their participation and their support."