Loretta Shea Kline/Key photo Mary Verde, 90, and her great-grandson Nicholas Messina, 14.

"This is no ordinary spaghetti dinner," said Xavier Rangel, president of the St. Gabriel Parent Teacher Exchange, the sponsoring organization. "It's arguably the best in town."

Rangel attributes that to Mary Verde's recipe for meatballs, for starters. And then there is the dedication of Verde's family - her daughter and son-in-law, Leonore and Larry Messina, who supervise volunteers in the kitchen, and their children and grandchildren.

"I left it all to my daughter," the 90-year-old Verde, who gave up the head cooking duties to Leonore Messina four or five years ago, told The Catholic Key at this year's dinner Feb. 21 at the Kansas City, north, school.

Verde did the cooking for the first spaghetti dinner in 1972, which was held to raise money for new basketball uniforms. Volunteers cooked up about 100 pounds of spaghetti and 100 pounds of meat that year, and raised $736.

Now, the event, which has been held every year since 1979, raises more than $9,000 to help support the school budget and endowment fund. The dinner accounts for about 10 percent of the group's fund-raising total, said Denise Messina, a past president who is Leonore's daughter-in-law. The group has in the past funded projects such as computer and science labs, and is currently raising money for playground improvements, she said.

The dinner, Leonore Messina said, is a school-wide effort. Volunteers obtain donations of food, make desserts, mix the meatballs, sling spaghetti, wait tables, bus tables, seat patrons and more, she said.

"Everybody's involved," said Leonore Messina, who begins working in the kitchen on the Friday before the Sunday dinner. "It's pretty neat. It works."

Rangel agreed that the dinner is a community-building event.

"Everyone donates their time, and most of the food is donated," he said. "It's really nice to see how the whole community works together. Everybody just does their thing."

Principal Jeanette Hardesty said the quality of the food is what attracts people to the dinner year after year. The price is right, too, at $5 for adults and $2.50 for children. A meal includes a generous portion of spaghetti, homemade sauce and meatballs, salad, bread, a drink and dessert.

"They (the Messinas) know how to make spaghetti," Hardesty said. "And the meatballs, they are out of this world."

The school has a Mary Verde Scholarship Fund to honor Verde for all of her years cooking for the dinner, Leonore Messina said. The fund provides scholarships to St. Pius X High School, where Verde was also involved for years in the spaghetti dinner sponsored by the junior class.

Verde said she is happy to let the younger generations carry on. Great-grandson Nicholas Messina joined other eighth-graders this year as a volunteer, making the dinner a four-generation family affair.

And why did the 14-year-old volunteer? "Because I have to," he said, only half-jokingly. "The family runs it, too."