Explorers Post set for annual macaroni and meatball dinner

It’s a Johnston rite of spring unlike any other.

It’s a fun-and-food-filled family affair with an endless supply of soup, salad, macaroni, meatballs, bread and butter, desserts and beverages.

It’s also includes one of the largest raffles held during the calendar in the town of Johnston.

The annual Johnston Police Department’s Explorers Post No. 405 Macaroni and Meatball Dinner will again be served this Sunday, April 27, from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. in the Johnston High School Cafeteria.

As history has it, the dinner started in 1995 when current Johnston Police Chief Richard S. Tamburini began his impressive 19-year watch.

And Tamburini, as well as Johnston Mayor Joseph Polisena, says “the Explorers Post is a very important program for young men and women ages 14 to 20 who are considering some sort of career in law enforcement.”

In recent years, the Explorers Post has become a role model for all Rhode Island-based police departments that provide such a program. The Explorers are actually part of the Narragansett Council of the Boy Scouts of America, but are run exclusively by local police departments.

Each Explorers Post also has an adult group of civilian advisors who help set up events like Sunday’s dinner.

The current cast includes John Bousquet, who is in his first year as president of the Friends of the Johnston Explorers, along with vice president George Arakelian Jr. and his wife, treasurer Gina Sabitoni-Arekelian.

In Johnston, the Explorers Post is so important that Polisena makes sure the program is included – in part – in the town’s annual budget.

That’s so the post can have a Johnston police officer who actual coordinates the entire program.

Johnston Capt. Thomas H. Dolan, an 18-year veteran, is in his first year as program coordinator. Dolan replaced former leader Major Marc. A. Boisvert, who retired from the force last year.

Thus, Polisena, Tamburini, Dolan and the Friends of the Explorers Post say Sunday’s dinner is important for a number of reasons, most notably to assist with the purchase of necessary uniforms and pay expenses for the annual Law Enforcement Academy held every summer at Camp Varnum in Narragansett.

Tickets for Sunday’s dinner are only $10 per person. Children under age 10 will be admitted free.

For tickets, please contact Dolan at 401-757-3100, ext. 3138; Bousquet at 401-529-4359; Arakelian Jr. at 401-946-0010; or Sabitoni-Arakelian at 401-499-1317.