Election Eve spaghetti dinner's new home | Community Spirit

TROY - Every night before Election Day, politicians know where to find a crowd.

But this year, there were some big changes to a popular event in Troy. 

The annual spaghetti dinner always used to be at Saint Mary's, but that church closed.

So this year, for the first time, Saint Anthony's hosted the event.

This dinner has been a tradition for more than half a century, and it is a popular place for political candidates.

Monday evening, we found Democrat Joanne Yepsen, who is running for senate against republican incumbent Roy McDonald.

Organizers say they wanted the dinner to continue even when Saint Mary's closed.

“Annually it was a big fundraiser for them, and we wanted to keep the tradition alive in their memory and keep it going.  It benefits the food pantries and the Father Harry Donahue Scholarship Fund,” says Deacon Wojton, one of the organizers.

“Very happy with the outcome.  Not that we ran out, but we're very happy that we served as many people as we did,” says Frank Debboli, another organizer.

“We met a lot of nice people that we didn't know before coming from different parishes.  And we all got together and it was very nice.  We worked beautifully as a team and we made it work,” says Emma Poleto, a third organizer.

The organizers say they were overwhelmed with how many people came out.

They expected about four-hundred, but ended up with about three-hundred more than that.