Everybody loves the Soup Ladies.

And Christy Todd, city attorney for Maple Valley, suggested people would love to support the Soup Ladies.

Started in 2003 by Ginger Passarelli Senecal, known affectionately as ‘Mama,’ the Soup Ladies has grown both in number of volunteers and its reach as a non-profit.

Still, the organization needs a way to regularly raise money to support the work of feeding first responders at the scene of major crimes, natural disasters and other situations.

Todd, who first met Senecal while she was serving as interim city manager for Maple Valley in 2007, learned first hand the importance of the Soup Ladies work while dealing with emergency management issues.

At the same time, Todd took the CERT class offered by Maple Valley Fire and Life Safety, and at the final session during which the participants went through a disaster drill, “Mama came and … served us her wonderful soup.”

“Mama and her Soup Ladies are just doing a wonderful thing,” Todd said. “I was concerned that she didn’t have a sustainable way to fund her operations and wanted to do what I could to help.”

To that end, Todd has worked on organizing a fundraiser, the first of what she hopes will become an annual event that will help the Soup Ladies continue with their mission of “warming the world one bowl at a time.”

When Todd first met Senecal, she asked her, “How do you keep this operation going?”

“I found out she puts in her own money and uses her own resources to help out of the kindness of her own heart,” Todd said. “I started searching on the homeland security sites for grants and I was getting frustrated. So, I said, ‘You know, Ginger, people love you. Why don’t we have a fundraising event?’”

Todd was at an event where she shared a table with Marcy and Mike Scott, both of whom work in emergency management, and know the Soup Ladies’ work. She talked to them about the idea of an annual fundraiser and they were immediately on board to help with procuring items for the fundraiser and much more.

Senecal said that people often try to provide them with donations while they are at a scene, but, that is neither the time or the place.

“I’m very excited about it,” she said. “It just seems like there are so many people who are constantly asking, how can we help, how can we help? This is it, this is everyone’s chance to help.”

This fundraiser, set for 5:30 p.m., Friday, Sept. 10, at Meridian Valley Golf and Country Club, will be the time and the place to help the Soup Ladies.

One thing the fundraiser can help with, Senecal said, is make the Soup Ladies’ mobile kitchen that much more functional.

The mobile kitchen arrived in October 2008.

“When we bought our mobile kitchen, it had been an existing business, so, because of that it was set up for them,” Senecal said. “We just want to be able to server a little bit better. Having some ovens would really help. We want to get two six burner stoves and each one would have oven. Then we could put out even more food than we can now.”

While in Lakewood after the deaths of four police officers last year, Senecal said, the Soup Ladies “were putting out hundreds and hundreds of meals.”

“We want it to be even more capable than it is,” she said. “Whenever we go anywhere, we just clean out my (restaurant’s) kitchen. We want to have our own stuff in the mobile kitchen… so that the trailer is totally stocked and ready to go with everything that we need in it.”

Linda White, a volunteer whom Senecal described as her “second in command,” added that due to the hard work first responders have to do it would be nice to have ovens and other equipment that would allow them to provide emergency personnel the right kind of fuel.

“First responders need hearty, filling meals,” White said. “The better food we can make for them, the better prepared they are for what they have to deal with.”

In addition to new stove/oven combinations and small kitchenware items, White said, they also really need a new generator.

“Our generators failed while were down there (in Lakewood),” she said. “Basically we put out just soup because that’s what our equipment allowed us to do the fastest and the easiest.”

Todd said there are plans for a silent auction, along with a pair of speakers, including one from the Lakewood Police Guild, a live auction, dinner and dancing. The Doug Cassell band will be performing.

Tickets are $75 per person.

White said she is looking forward to the fundraiser.

“I think it’s special that people in our communities recognize what we do,” she said. “We always have a need for money because things can’t be paid for out of the restaurant.”

Soup Ladies Fundraiser

• Where: Meridian Valley Country Club, 24830 136th Avenue SE, Kent
• When: 5:30 p.m.
• Friday, Sept. 10
• Cost: $75
• RSVP and pay by Sept. 7 to attend. Call 206-571-4224 or send an e-mail to thesoupladies@live.com to RSVP.