Great Pasta for Summer Posies Wins Our Family's Hunger Games

We carried out for the fundraiser Wednesday night, choosing pasta over Peeta and actual hunger over The Hunger Games.

The raises money for the Geneva Beautification Committee, that group of community volunteers that plants flowers on the "knuckles" of street corners throughout the city during the warm-weather months. The flowers and the volunteerism are two of many reasons to love Geneva.

The event was held from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Riverview Banquets, 1117 N. Washington Ave., Batavia.

I was picking up dinner right about the same time actors of The Hunger Games movie were making an appearance at the Westfield Fox Valley Mall, and I have to admit, there was a little magnetic pull to keep heading south to Aurora last night. I don't care so much about celebrities, but I am interested in the movie, which debuts March 23.

Last year during spring break we pointed the car a lot farther south, to Disney World, and on the way, we listened to The Hunger Games book on CD, courtesy of one of my favorite institutions in all the world, the . It made the trip fly.

Anyway, the Daily Herald reports that more than 2,000 screaming fans went to the mall at 6:15 p.m. Wednesday for a glimpse of Josh Hutcherson, who plays Peeta and co-stars Isabelle Fuhrman, who plays Clove, and Jacqueline Emerson, who plays Foxface.

There might not have been 2,000 screaming fans at 6:15 p.m. at the former Knights of Columbus building on Route 25, just south of Fabyan Parkway, but there were plenty of good people and good cheer.

I thought the spaghetti was excellent. The Italian bread was fresh and the homemade desserts were to die for. We'll definitely mark the calendar for next year, and you should, too.

The Hunger Games might be the next big pop-culture phenomenon, but in my book at least, hunger for good pasta is forever.

P.S. If you are a Hunger Games fan, the Geneva Public Library is hosting a  on March 16!