EASTHAMPTON — As a restaurant owner, Konstantine Sierros says he’s often contacted for contributions to community organizations.

So he wasn’t surprised when 17-year-old Diya Bhatia, a member of Easthampton High School’s We The People team, reached out to him for a donation to the fundraising campaign for the trip to Washington, D.C. The class has qualified for a national competition and is trying to raise $50,000.

When he heard Bhatia’s request for “anything and everything,” Sierros, who owns Paisano’s Restaurant in Southampton and is a fan of the We The People program, said he was on board.

As part of his donation, he decided he would provide all of the ingredients needed for the class’ upcoming spaghetti dinner fundraiser on Thursday, March 30 from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. at EHS.

“My initial instinct was to just drop off all the ingredients they would need to make the event possible; pasta, the sauce, meatballs, bread, butter, and even grated Parmesan cheese, but then I thought to myself that to simply ‘drop it off’ was something I felt was not good enough for such a gifted group of students. They were worthy of much more,” he said in an email.

Instead, Kelley Brown, an EHS teacher who leads We the People, and Sierros took a group of students from the class to Restaurant Depot in Chicopee, a local supply distribution center, to learn about business, food costs, civic responsibility and accountability.

Sierros said that in addition to his financial contribution, he wanted to donate a learning experience to create a positive influence on all these young adults, now and in the future.

With ingredients in hand, the students will cook and serve the dinner as well as hold a silent auction on March 30. Tickets to the dinner are $10 for adults and $7 for kids under 10.

For more information about the dinner, contact Brown at kbrown@epsd.us or 413-529-1585, ext. 2504. Additional information about the auction will be available on the class’ EHS We The People Facebook page.

Those wishing to donate can make checks payable to Easthampton High School and send them to: Easthampton High School, c/o Kelley Brown, We The People, 70 Williston Ave., Easthampton, MA 01027.

Emily Thurlow can be reached at ethurlow@gazettenet.com.]]>