LAURINBURG — Plates were selling fast Wednesday during the semi-annual Laurinburg Optimist Family Plate sale.

The Laurinburg Optimist Club was prepared to sell more than 2,200 plates of fish, shrimp and chicken through its drive-through or dining option.

“The past few plate sales we have sold out and I think that’s why we had so many people coming out early today,” said Ron Riggins. “We were having people come through before 11 this morning.”

Riggins added that along with people who were coming in to buy a few plates, the club had numerous deliveries throughout the community for plates.

“We’ve had quite a few deliveries to some of the plants and to some of the bigger offices,” Riggins said. “We delivered somewhere between 400 to 450 plates. Our most popular item is still the fish and I think it’s because that’s what we started with.”

Riggins has been co-chair of the plate sale with Jim Weaver for the past 20-plus years and has gotten to watch the plate sale grow over those years. The plate sale began in the early 1980s in the Scotland Inn restaurant before moving to the armory then finally to Optimist Park. The sale was just a fish fry until the late 1990s when the club added shrimp and in the 2000s a chicken plate was added.

Wednesday’s event was the first plate sale in a while that allowed for people to sit and eat at the park, which was something Riggins was excited about doing.

”We opened it back up to let people eat here, so there’s been a lot of fellowship going on today,” Riggins said. “I think it’s great to have people out here again. We added some tables out in the grass for people to use.

All the money that is raised through the plate sale goes to the Optimist Club which in turn goes back to the boys and girls baseball teams, scholarships, oratorical contests, essay contests and more.

“The volunteers are always a huge help and this time we had some from Scotland Christian Academy out here today,” Riggins said. “I just want to say thank you to Laurinburg for the support of our fundraiser and our youth programs.”

Reach Katelin Gandee at kgandee@laurinburgexch.wpenginepowered.com. To support The Laurinburg Exchange, subscribe here: https://laurinburgexch.wpenginepowered.com/subscribe