Crab and shrimp feed will benefit students

The 17th annual Crab and Shrimp Dinner will be hosted Saturday by the Optimist Club of Redwood City. The group holds various community service events throughout the year, with all proceeds going toward local students. In the past, they have spent $30,000 on musical instruments for local public school programs and have got numerous inner-city youth off the streets by sending them to summer camps for free.

"We send kids out to the camp who literally have never been to a forest or seen a creek,” said Ralph Garcia, a club member organizing the event. "It gives these kids something to look forward to and it tells them that at least somebody cares about them.”

Tickets to the Crab and Shrimp Dinner cost $40 and include an open bar, salad and an all-you-can-eat dinner. Raffle tickets that could win guests prizes will also be available during the event. About 200 people are expected to attend, which would net the club about $8,000 to spend on local school kids.

The club holds the dinner on the second Saturday of March each year. They also hold Music in the Park on Brewster Avenue, where they raise money for local youth by grilling up hamburgers and hot dogs to sell to the community. Another annual event is Horses to Horse Power, a car show fundraiser for alumni of Sequoia High School.

The group started the dinner in 1991 after getting the idea from an optimist club in Sacramento. Their signature fundraiser before the dinner was selling Christmas trees. Members gradually grew older, however — one member is 100 years old — and the tree gig didn’t exactly run as a well-oiled machine anymore.

"(The dinner) sounded easier than lugging trees all over the place,” said Garcia, 56. "So we went and saw their event and we got out of the tree business. Some members were getting a little long in the tooth to be out there at 6 in the morning unloading a truck.”

The volunteers of the Optimist Club began helping the city’s youth more than 50 years ago. One of its first projects was establishing the Redwood City Little League. Now they hold oratorical, essay and speech contests for kids, with winners getting scholarships.

Optimist clubs have been "bringing out the best in kids” worldwide since 1919, according to Optimist International, the group that governs the regional clubs. Six million kids are positively affected by more than 100,000 club members in more than 3,200 of the organization’s various regional branches. They spent about $78 million each year on roughly 65,000 community service projects for area youth across the globe.

Saturday’s dinner will be held from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. in the Community Activities building on 1400 Roosevelt Ave. For tickets contact Garcia at his business, Ralph’s Vacuum and Sewing Center, by calling (650) 368-2841.