Local nonprofit, East Area Volunteer Emergency Services Inc., will fire up some spaghetti and meatballs for its second annual spaghetti dinner fundraiser on Saturday.

The EAVES is a nonprofit emergency medical service that has served the Village of East Syracuse and the northern Town of DeWitt since 1976. Its first spaghetti fundraiser took place last year and raised about $3,000. The nonprofit hopes to bring in about $5,000 on Saturday. The spaghetti dinner serves as the organization’s main fundraiser.

The current facility no longer meets the nonprofit’s needs said Kevin Alexander, EAVES’ public information officer.

The size of the building has become too small as the size of the agency and call volume have increased, Alexander said. The current building houses three out of the four ambulances, while the fourth and a rehabilitation trailer are stored in a back garage.

“This causes a huge strain on us because we don’t have a facility that’s modern. … Our biggest thing is we want to continue our standard of care,” Alexander said. “We have high standards, so the quality of care is of the utmost importance to us.”

EAVES also responds to fires with their rehabilitation trailer to provide rehabilitation services to the local fire departments.

Brad Pinsky, chief of the Manlius Fire Department, noted that EAVES’ facility is small and said that he, “trusts their professional judgement,” if they believe they need a new facility.

A new facility will allow EAVES to store all their emergency vehicles together in a single-heated building and create a bigger training room. Additionally, EAVES will be relocated toward the center of their response area which will improve the response times to the village and areas along Erie Blvd East.

The dinner will include spaghetti, meatballs, garden salads, Italian bread, garlic knots and desserts. There will be a 50/50 raffle and carnival games with prizes. Raffle items include gift certificates to restaurants, to tattoo parlors, for haircuts and for massages. Attendees can also bid on gift baskets designed by Hercules Candies, which contain food, haircare products or tools. Alexander said there will be more items and a greater variety for the raffle and gift baskets than last year.

Local Syracuse business, Hercules Candies, began helping last year when Alexander approached owner Terry Andrianos for donations. Andrianos recalled telling Alexander that he wanted to have everything organized beforehand, so she began to assist with organizing spreadsheets, posting on a Facebook event page and designing the gift baskets.

“I just wanted to help them out because it was such a good cause,” Andrianos said. “Everybody that works there is so enthusiastic. They really believe in what they’re doing.”

A new addition to the dinner this year will be a delivery service. Alexander said elderly residents from the East Syracuse community can call ahead and EAVES will deliver the spaghetti dinner to their homes.

While they do receive help from the Town of DeWitt, Alexander explained that EAVES does not get fully reimbursed because the majority of the community in their primary response area are on Medicare or Medicaid. They also pay a mortgage to rent their building.

“I really had no idea how much they do with so little money. … What they do with the amount of money they get is pretty unbelievable,” Andrianos said. “They really are a group of professionals; they really want to help people.”

Tinsky echoed the professionally of the organization.

“EAVES is a very professional, very progressive, and a very quality organization, so it’s always a pleasure working with them,” Tinsky said.

Published on September 20, 2017 at 8:54 pm