Church hosts spaghetti dinner for Great Expectations

The Santa Cruz Valley United Methodist Church will be holding a spaghetti dinner to raise money for Great Expectations Academy, the Sahuarita charter school that was burglarized last month.

On Sept. 24, teachers arrived at the school to find that several of their classrooms had been broken into. Four recently-purchased desktop computers — worth about $4,000 — were missing, along with a jar full of field trip money from the first-grade classroom.

The fundraising dinner, hosted by the congregation and other members of the community, will be held Saturday, Oct. 18, from 5 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at the Masonic Lodge, 18090 S. La Canada Dr., in Sahuarita.

The price of admission is by donation.

Cub Scouts from Sahuarita’s Pack 321 will be acting as servers, and carry-out plates will also be available.

The Santa Cruz Valley United Methodist congregation, which meets at Sahuarita Primary Gym on Sundays, has been using the Great Expectations Academy campus for choir practice, youth meetings, and other church gatherings for several years and was “devastated” when they heard that the school had been burglarized.

“Great Expectations has been so wonderful, opening the school up to the community like that,” said church member Marie Olson, who is helping to organize the fundraiser. “I hope they feel safe enough to continue to do so.”

The dinner will also feature a live silent auction, Olson says.

So far, items to be auctioned off include a landscaping plan, professional massage, Mary Kay cosmetics basket and other small items, including teddy bears donated by Green Valley’s KGVY 1080 radio station.

For more information, contact the Santa Cruz Valley United Methodist Church at (520)-331-2450.

jrichardson@gvnews.com | 547-9726