Anderson Rotary crab feed a HUGE success despite the region's economy

Photo by George L. Winship, Editor

Fifty-four friends of Paint Marts store owners Joe and Sharon Schuler attended the Anderson Rotary Club's 40th annual Crab Feed dressed as "trailer trash." Their table was decorated with assorted underwear and lingerie, the table cloth was newspapers, aluminum pie tins served as plates and cockroaches and flies galore (plastic ones only) clustered on the tabletop.

From all early reports, the 40th annual Anderson Rotary Club Crab Feed held Saturday, Jan. 9, was another huge success this year despite the well-known conditions of the local, state and national economies.

After expenses - including $12,000 for 3,000 pounds of fresh crab and several more thousands of dollars for fairgrounds rentals, security guard hiring, alcohol, the band, paper goods and other incidentals too numerous to even mention - all net proceeds will be used for scholarships given to south county youths and other community projects undertaken by the 50-member service club.

Club members who sold $35 tickets for weeks prior to the event packed the fairgrounds building with people who came with an appetite for crab and the expectation of loads of fun. A total of 1,000 tickets were printed, and we set up enough tables and chairs before the event for at least 900 folks to sit and eat.

More tables and chairs were set up after all the tickets were collected or sold at the door, but I won't know how many more until after our debriefing Wednesday night.

The raffle ticket table sold out halfway through the salad and seafood chowder course and I know we split up two complete rolls of tickets there. Priced at six tickets for $5, we took in a lot of $20 bills without having to give out any change.

Likewise, at the drinks ticket table, they sold out of drink tickets and they went through three complete rolls priced at 11 tickets for $10. Complete bottles of wine were carted away from the bar almost as fast as some of our members could uncork them, but that still left a half-dozen guys and gals mixing drinks and pouring beers until well after 10 p.m. when we started to shut things down for the night.

We didn't run out of seafood chowder. We even had some chowder left over to sell to our members. The same could be said of the crab, even after all of our guests had eaten their fill and then some.

Perhaps the biggest surprise of the night was the nearly $900 auction price that some lucky guy paid for the chance to have dinner at Rivers Restaurant in Redding with KRCR-TV, Channel 7R meteorologist Chita Johnson and Shasta County Sheriff Tom Bosenko as chaperone.

A similar auction will be held at the Shasta County Women's Refuge Crab Feed set for Feb. 7, also at the Shasta District Fair grounds in Anderson. It will be interesting to see what bid price their auction brings.

A big thanks to all of you who supported the Anderson Rotary Club Crab Feed this year, and especially those folks who buy tickets and have a great time year after year.

We couldn't do it without your support!