Downtown restaurant Bell Farms closes for day to support Shriners annual spaghetti dinner
CHILLICOTHE— The Ross County Shrine Club held its 42nd annual spaghetti dinner last week and while many of those working were members of the club some new faces were working as well.
This is thanks to Mike and Shawna Bell of Bell Farms who closed their restaurant for the day and offered employees the chance to get paid to help at the event.
Mike has been a member of the Ross County Shrine Club for 22 years, and his father was also a member for as long as he could remember. Bell has seen the club change over the years including recently experiencing a decline in members.
Last week the Shriners held their annual spaghetti dinner where they served hundreds of plates of spaghetti to customers both dining in and through the drive-through. The proceeds from this event went to support the local Shriners club and its operations. The club holds many other fundraisers to support the Shriner's Hospital to help provide life-changing care to children in need.
The Bells decided to close down their restaurant for the day and offered any employee who wanted to work the opportunity to get paid to help out at the dinner. Bell said that Shawna told him they could not have both places open at once but they did not want to take away work time from employees since they know times are tough. They also hoped that regular customers would come to support the Shriners with Bell Farms closed for the day.
Overall 10 people worked at the spaghetti dinner throughout the day, two of those being workers from Bell Farms who agreed to help. One worker, Amy Elam, did everything from cleaning dishes to helping serve customers. She has worked at Bell farms for almost a year and a half and was happy to be able to help.
"Mike and Shawna are all about helping the community," said Elam. "I've always liked what they did with the Shriners so I wanted to help as well."
While Elam is not a Shriner herself she did have a sister go to the Shriner's Hospital when they were younger. She has also seen what she calls the "awesome things" the local Shriners club has done to help kids like the recent bike donation to a local child with cerebral palsy.
Shelby Reeves is a reporter for the Chillicothe Gazette. You can email her at SReeves@gannett.com or follow her on Twitter @Shelby_Reeves_
This article originally appeared on Chillicothe Gazette: Bell Farms restaurant closes for day to help Ross County Shrine Club
