The Rotary Club of Belmont and Redwood Shores hosted its annual 2024 Lobster Fest fundraiser at Twin Peaks Community Center this past Saturday.
The fundraiser entails both silent and live auctions and a lobster dinner served by volunteers in the community.
Adele Della Santina is a member of the Rotary Club who helped plan and prepare for the Lobster Fest fundraiser.
“The Lobster Fest attracts people from the community to come together, socialize, enjoy the evening, and happily contribute to the wonderful causes we support,” Della Santina said.
The fundraiser requires a lot of planning, being one of the Rotary Club’s most significant events every year.
“Every year we add or do something new. The committee meets regularly throughout the year developing ways to be better. Our members are diverse; each pulls in a specialty to add to our successful event,” Della Santina said.
The preparation and success of the fundraiser continue beyond club members as high school volunteers are enlisted to set up and serve the event.
“Everyone was enjoying the food, and it was my first time seeing a silent auction, so it was a really cool experience to see so many people bidding,” said Victoria Jung, a student at Carlmont and one of 30 servers who volunteered to work the Lobster Fest fundraiser.
The event allows people from the community, whether it be sponsors, donors, or attendees, to gather while simultaneously raising money for both local community and international causes.
“The annual Lobster Fest event is our Club’s biggest fundraiser, grossing $80,000 to $100,000 yearly,” Della Santina said.
Ray Avanzino is the current president of the Rotary Club of Belmont and Redwood Shores.
“The fundraiser helps to support our local projects throughout the year, such as Cars for Vets, the medical equipment loan program, and student scholarships and teacher mini-grants,” Avanzino said.
The fundraiser is one of several events the Rotary Club hosts throughout the year, and the Club’s positive impact on the world is not limited to Lobster Fest.
“When I joined the Rotary Club, I started learning about the immense impact that it has not only in the local community but all over the world. Rotary tackles global projects such as clean water, eradication of polio, training for treatment of dysplasia, and more. They are accomplished by joining with a local club in that country to ensure the project gets done efficiently and is sustainable,” Della Santina said.
With the tremendous success of the Rotary Club in the 2024 LobsterFest fundraiser, they eagerly look forward to next year’s fundraiser.
“The numbers grow each year. I love to see the joy expressed by their repeated generosity to our causes,” Della Santina said.
