Hundreds of people descended on Goehner March 2 to help support the local volunteer fire department and celebrate the 68th annual Goehner spaghetti feed.
“We come to this every year – it’s the best spaghetti we ever eat – so much so that you just can’t stop eating!” said Kirk Sharp of Waco, who has been attending the event every year for 25 years now.
“You won’t find anything like it in the state, honestly,” said Eathan Heser of Beaver Crossing.
Goehner firemen and other volunteers started making meatballs and the homemade sauce from scratch several days before the event, and cooks wearing “Here to get sauced” t-shirts monitored a dozen large parts of boiling water filled with spaghetti throughout the 8-hour event.
More than 600 pounds of ground meat and spices were used to make the 23,324 meatballs produced for this year’s spaghetti feed, said Jesse Meinberg, a volunteer fireman and member of the spaghetti feed committee.
“I’m sure I’ve been to every one of these that have been held in my life,” Meinberg said, “and now the kids look forward to it every year. We used to throw meatballs at each other as kids when we volunteered growing up, back when it was held at Grange Hall.”
The fundraiser usually attracts more than 1,500 people, Meinberg said, depending on the weather, and raises anywhere from $6,000 to $9,000. The money is used to help support the department and other things in the Goehner area, Mienberg said.
“This isn’t just about the money we raise,” Meinberg said. “It’s about the tradition.”
