Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi is considered a king when it comes to fundraisers. He has amassed hundreds of thousands in campaign funds, but no single event can top the one held Monday at the Crowne Plaza where he drew a crowd of 600 and raised $270,000.

The money is not for him. It is going to Family Service of Rhode Island.

The luncheon event at $125 a ticket was the first in-person fundraiser the organization has held in two years. It surpassed expectations said Chief Executive Officer Margaret Holland McDuff and was the biggest fundraiser in the history of the organization that was founded in 1892 as the “Providence Society for Organizing Charity” with goals to reduce pauperism, secure relief from poverty, and assist the poor to become self-supporting. Today the agency employs hundreds of staff and provides child development and operates a school in its array of services.

Holland McDuff said the funds raised would be used for the early childhood program. She said the Family Service provides assistance to more than 5,000 newborns annually.

For Shekarchi the cause and the event had special meaning.

“I go to events all the time and talk about issues,” he said Tuesday reciting a packed schedule of press conferences and meetings. What touched him about this fundraiser was its focus on families. He spoke of his family coming to this country from the Middle East and the hard work that went into making a home and a future for him and his siblings.

He mentioned his mother passed 14 years ago and that unfortunately his father, who is 96, could not be with him and his brother and sister on Monday.

“They do God’s work,” he said of Family Service.

Shekarchi called himself “one of the lucky ones” whose parents were able to provide for the family. Family Service, he said, “fills in the gaps” for those struggling.

“They make sure to put you on the path to succeed. When you don’t have good guide posts, you’ll fall off the tracks.”