BELPRE - In an effort to raise funds to aid Belpre's youth, the alumni association will hold its annual ice cream social Saturday.
"We have done this for many years and it is our biggest fundraiser with all of the money going to the scholarship fund," said Dana Fouss, president of the Belpre Alumni Association.
This will be the 14th year for the event, which is always held in the Belpre Volunteer Fire Department Training Center and bingo hall on Washington Boulevard. The event will begin at 11 a.m. and run through 6 p.m.
Not only will ice cream be served, but also hot dogs with sauce with homemade cakes and pies, which have been donated.
"You can come for lunch or dinner and help support a great cause," said association member Jackie Cassidy.
Each year the social hosts between 500 and 1,000 people in the center; always on the second Saturday in July. Past association president Bill McAfee said the social started in Howes Grove Park but was moved inside after rain hampered the turnout for two years in-a-row.
The social will not only include food and drinks, but also live entertainment with gospel and country music and a disk jockey.
"From the time we open at 11 a.m. until we close there will not be a moment were local entertainment and music is not going," Fouss said.
The event is not only for Belpre residents, but people from around the area with supporters from Little Hocking, Parkersburg and the Barlow-Vincent area attending each year.
While ice cream is dished out, the reason behind the event will not go forgotten.
"The neat thing about the social is that everything we raise during it goes to the scholarships," Fouss said.
This past year the association gave out more than $20,000 in six scholarships to Belpre High School graduates.
It is important to our members that we help the new graduates through our scholarship program, association member Karen Matthews said in May.
The alumni association gave its first scholarship in 1995 and a few years later added a second and largest scholarship named after fellow member John Lawton.
