The picture above is an appropriate representation of last night’s crab feast for several reasons. First, depicted above are several rotarians part of the Annapolis club serving the community in a selfless manner. The picture also clearly speaks to the star of the show: Maryland crabs. Perhaps you went to the 68th Annual Annapolis Rotary Crab Feast or perhaps you missed it; regardless, we caught up with a few members and the president of the Rotary Club of Annapolis for an inside peak at the success of the night.
President Bea Carson, who’s been functioning as president since the beginning of July, was quite happy with the feast. “I don’t think anybody had a bad time,” she joked. This is in part because of Carson’s hard work along with the near 160 rotarians who orchestrated the event. Jeff Neufeld, who is in charge of the crab feast, had willing rotarians spread out across the venue: some at the ticket entrance, others at the bake sale, and more selling raffle tickets with felt crab hats on.
Even still, Carson has her own ideas about why the feast was successful (and has been for 68 years), namely the succulent Maryland crab. “You just can’t beat the price!” she exclaims. Sixty bucks for all-you-can eat and drink is quite a bargain. She further lists, “It’s become such a tradition here; people have their favorite spots to sit at, so they get there early; and companies will even buy tables in the preferred dining for client appreciation.” Carson provides that last year, the feast was the meeting spot for a family reunion for a family spread across New York and Florida. “My daughter and her friend even flew in from Michigan,” says Carson. Needless to say, the stadium was packed with crab enthusiasts from Annapolis and way beyond.
“We have so many good people who volunteer their time and resources at the event and I think that’s part of why we are so successful,” Carson added. Good help is hard to find, but thankfully, the Annapolis Rotary Club has it in the bag.
Mary Felter, who does PR for the Annapolis Rotary Club, explained Seafood Shoreline had provided somewhere between 25,000 to 30,000 crabs for the event. Aside from the crabs, the feast featured bake sale goodies, hot dogs, draft beer, Adam’s Ribs pulled pork sandwiches, and watermelon donated by Mar-Del Watermelon Association. The Mar-Del watermelon queens were even there to accompany the watermelon stations. 
Fun activities–aside from stuffing down crabs–came in the form of a dunk tank and a raffle.
Though the numbers of tickets sold and revenue gained haven’t been crunched yet, so to speak, Carson explained the expected profits are somewhere from $50,000 to $80,000. This figure makes sense, considering the near 2,000 people spread out amongst hundreds of tables in the concession area and other areas at the stadium. What do these profits translate to? Aside from plenty of happy and full guests, the profits mean the rotary club can provide 25-30 local nonprofits with anywhere from a few hundred dollars to a couple thousand. The nonprofit recipients change yearly and will be chosen a later date. 
Dan Briganti, one of the rotary veterans (who joked he had not been in the rotary as long as it’s been in Annapolis–68 years–with a cracked smile on his face), told me he was “the banner guy.” Briganti was the one who had orchestrated the banner decorations that hung in the president’s table tent, in the preferred dining tent, and in the general admission seating–some 1,200 banners in all from 65 countries. Briganti explained the process of acquiring so many banners: “When we travel, we attend the rotary club meeting there. We give the rotary club our banner in exchange for one of their banners.” It’s truly an international exchange and support system.
The Annapolis Rotary Club isn’t the only one doing good things in the community; it’s the rotary way for all the 1.2 million rotarians worldwide. Rotarians are involved in their own communities but also contribute to global causes like fighting polio. You can learn more about what the one in your neck of the woods is doing here: www.annapolisrotary.org.
Missing the crab feast already? Mark your calendar for the first Friday in August of 2014, the date of the 69th crab feast.
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