Pasta Dinner Raises Money for Community

The Kiwanis Club of Glen Cove hosted its first formal event for the year on Monday night, a pasta dinner at .

The dinner was the club's eleventh annual such dinner, which raises money to fund scholarships, defensive driving courses, club-affiliated camp programs, and other activities supported by the club, according to former club president Ann Marie Gailius.

"We believe that the youth are the future, and that's why we do so much with young people," Gailius said. "One reason I joined the club initially is that when I raise money for something, I like to know where the money goes. I can honestly tell you where every dollar goes within the Kiwanis Club."

Current president Ron Bieber says the club has had a profound effect on the community since its founding in 2001.

"Just recently we donated two ambulances to the City of Glen Cove," said Bieber, a 21-year Kiwanian, who volunteered with Port Washington's Kiwanis Club before he helped found the Glen Cove club. "I think we've grown in output, the things we do, even if membership and numbers look the same. One thing that I've seen unique to this Glen Cove group is that we're all friends, even outside of the club we get together as friends."

Bieber pointed that the club is looking forward to working with the international organizations efforts with Project Eliminate this year, an endeavor that the Glen Cove club will work for with its sponsor clubs.

The project will include groups that it sponsors like K-Kids at Landing and Connolly Elementary Schools, the Key Club at the Glen Cove High School, and co-sponsors Circle K at Long Island University's C.W. Post campus.