What is the Spaghetti Dinner?
This annual 116 fundraiser is a combination dinner, bake sale, raffle, and silent auction.
What do we do with the money raised? It funds three things:
- Scout dues, because, unlike most other troops, we do not charge annual dues. Troop 116 covers everybody’s SA registration costs (which are currently just shy of $100) and basic materials (books, patches, etc.) through this fundraiser.
- The troop itself, to purchase new troop gear.
- The individual scouts, to fill their individual troop accounts that they can use to pay for trips.
We have had several gung-ho scouts in the past who have raised enough to cover the costs of all weekend trips for the coming year, and some have even managed to defray most if not all of the cost of their summer trips.
How the troop (and Scouts) earn money
How do they do that? Well, scouts are in charge of two elements:
- Selling tickets
- Providing items for the silent auction, raffle, and bake sale
The first ten tickets each scout sells goes to the troop—partly to defray the cost of the event, mostly to cover official SA dues (which, again, are about $100), and partly so we can buy new gear like water filters (all of ours are officially broken), tents, camp stoves, and other things that seem to wear out amazingly quickly.
The proceeds from any tickets beyond the first ten go directly into the scout’s individual account. Basically, for every 3-4 tickets you sell beyond the first five, that’s a free weekend trip for you.
- Pro tip: Distant relatives will likely buy a ticket even if they don’t live anywhere nearby and will not actually be attending, just to support you. Grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc. are good for this.
Scouts also receive 100% of the proceeds from their contributions to the silent auction, raffle, and bake sale. For more on that, see “For Scouts” below.
For Scouts
The Silent Auction
There is a Silent Auction for a service you will provide. This is you putting in your sweat equity—in other words, you are offering to do some kind of work.
Typically this is yard work, babysitting, dog walking, help with spring cleaning, car washing, etc.
Some kids have gotten more inventive, marking particular skills like web page coding, cooking, or artistry.
Some kids kick it up a notch. One year I won a “parents’ night out” package that included babysitting, two tickets to Jenkintown’s Hiway Theater, and a gift certificate to cover dinner at the Drake.
The Raffle
You also need to come up with an item or two for the raffle.
This can be something as simple as a gift certificate donated by a local business or… well, anything, really.
It can be a gift basket from area business or just stuff cleaned out of your closet. I’ve seen office chairs and ukuleles, gift baskets and bicycles, gift certificates for spa days and for car maintenance and for rock climbing lessons, cases of home-brew beer and dozens of backyard chicken’s eggs.
My son got to try fencing thanks to a gift certificate for beginner lessons at FAP. One year, a pair of siblings cleverly donated some cool toys and other things they were no longer using and ended up making money off just from cleaning out their closets.
To help you secure donations from area business, use the “begging letter” linked at the end of this page.
The Bake Sale
If you like to bake, you can do the bake sale, too.
- Pro tip: We’ve found that single-serving items (a cookie, or maybe bag of three) sell better than, say, a whole pie or cake.
For Adults
The spaghetti dinner is run by the parents. And by that I mean typically not those parents who are official adult leaders in the troop and do most of the weekly meetings and monthly trips (all the Assistant Scoutmasters and such).
This is the chance for the rest of the families to step up.
Each year we have a Capo, an event captain, but she or he will need several other adult volunteers (to help in the kitchen, with the silent auction and raffle, with the bake sale, etc.).
Please volunteer. Remember: The better the dinner goes, the more money your Scout will earn and the less you’ll have to shell out for trips!
When is the Spaghetti Dinner?
It is held on a Saturday in the spring, very often the day before Mother’s Day.
For 2026, it will be on Saturday, May 9, from 5 to 8pm (though Scouts need to show up at 2pm to begin setting up.).