With music provided by the El Portal Middle School band to start the evening, a social hour, lots of silent auction and raffle items to peruse, followed by the traditional corned beef and cabbage dinner, the Escalon Lions Club hosted a successful event on Saturday, March 14.

The club put on its 60th annual St. Patrick’s Day dinner, staged at the Escalon Community Center, and saw a big crowd turn out once again. There were also people that picked up dinner to go, driving through for the meal featuring corned beef, cabbage, potatoes and carrots.

Lions Club members, the husband-and-wife team of Brandon and Taylor Scully, served as co-chairs for the dinner this year.

“I like just being part of the community and doing what we can to help out,” Taylor Scully said of membership with the Lions Club. “It’s like anther mini-family; it’s really amazing and I just love our little small town.”

Much of the prep work was done earlier in the day Saturday, so as diners began to file in, the items for raffle drawings and silent auction were on display, tables were decorated, the young musicians were at the ready with their instruments, and several high school volunteers – including Miss Escalon and her court – joined in to help serve the dinner.

Proceeds from the annual St. Patrick’s Day event go back into the community, through a number of projects and initiatives of the Lions Club, ranging from youth team sponsorships to student scholarships.